Created
by sircheibroken
Summary: After the fall of the Reach "metas" have been popping up here and there. When Nightwing finds one in Gotham he is met with a challenge. Win and she will join the superhero life. Lose and she disappears from sight. But he isn't the only one interested in Anastasia's powers and willing to make a bet with her. Rated M for language
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

10:25 PM; OCTOBER 13

GOTHAM

 _That's not right. The wings are lopsided. Dammit._ Anastasia frowned at her sketchbook as she erased the lines she had just drawn for the third time. No matter what she did to the piece it still felt wrong. Setting down her pencil she took a sip of her latte and looked around, trying to draw inspiration from her surroundings. It was the same coffee shop she usually came to on nights such as this one, the aroma of coffee beans filling the air with temptation. There were only a few other people scattered around the tables and eclectic chairs this time of night: anyone that lived further than five minutes away by walking tended to stop coming after dusk. It was Gotham after all. As it was, Ana was left listening to the faint song of some local band playing over the speakers and the occasional whir of the cappuccino machine as someone ordered yet another drink. The only people talking were Claire and Isaac, the two baristas behind the counter whom Anastasia had known since high school, and a pair of girls pouring over their homework at a table by the window. It was exactly how Ana liked it.

Claire must have noticed her frowning and looking around in a way that said she was looking for inspiration because before Ana knew it the barista had pulled out the chair across from her and unceremoniously plopped down.

"Having trouble with this one?" Claire asked as she leaned closer to get a look at the sketchbook. At the moment it appeared to be covered in random lines and circles, nowhere near what Ana wanted it to be.

Ana shrugged and took another sip of her drink. "You could say that. I've been trying to draw this one for a while now, but it just won't happen. It's like my hand forgot how to draw." She complained, gesturing at the mess of lines.

Claire chuckled and flipped her curly blonde hair behind her shoulder. "Stop thinking about how perfect it has to be and just let it draw itself. If you keep trying to make it live up to the scene in your head then you'll never finish it."

Ana frowned at her friend's words. Surely the barista had to be joking. Despite them both being artists Ana and Claire had always had differing styles. Claire was more abstract, letting her emotions guide her and creating textures with her paints in no particular order. Ana was representational, relying on scales and measurements to create images that mimicked the real world. Not that neither had tried each other's preferred genres, it was a simple fact that the pair thought and worked differently.

Still, Ana considered Claire's words carefully. If she didn't just get the image on the paper regardless of what the image in her mind looked she would never get it done. "Alrighty, I'll try." She smiled up at her friend gratefully, though unsure if her method would work. Ana was nothing if not a perfectionist when it came to her artwork.

Claire stood and turned to go back to the counter. "Don't worry, I'm sure it will be great. By the way," she pointed towards Ana's half-finished latte, "next one's on me."

As Claire returned to her post behind the counter Ana picked her pencil back up. Taking a deep breath, she bowed her head to try yet again to create a drawing she was happy with. Her pencil glided over the paper in a fluid motion, pulling a light grey line behind it. The lines seemed to create themselves, bringing the image in her mind to life. An angel – or perhaps a beautiful demon – pointed its sword at a human woman, her long hair tangling with his wings. It was a piece she had been trying to get right for days now, working any time she wasn't otherwise occupied. Time seemed to slow as she went back and traced over with a pen, being careful to fix any mistakes and not make any more as she inked the lines. She had just brought up the pen when the bang of the door startled her away from the paper.

Just inside the door stood three men, all with masks covering their faces and brandishing guns. Ana's blood turned to ice. She had heard about the recent robberies in the neighborhood, but hadn't thought that she would be witness to one. Usually the little gang robbed businesses after they closed, not while there were still people inside. Everyone assumed that the only reason Gotham's protectors had not intervened yet was because there had been more important criminals to fight: it certainly wasn't the first time small scale criminals decided to rampage while one of the Dark Knight's enemies was out of Arkham. If memory served her right she believed this time it was the Joker and his little sidekick/girlfriend. Compared to the clown faced villain these men were as important as homeless people to the rich.

All talking ceased as one man – whom Anastasia assumed was their leader – stepped up to the counter and casually leaned against it, his gun pointing towards Claire as she stood deathly still on the other side. "Say, why don't you make this nice and easy for both of us. Give us whatever's in the drawer and we'll leave everyone here relatively unscathed." His voice was sickly sweet, dripping with unspoken threats. One of the other men moved to block the door while the other came over to the tables and put his gun to the head of a young man shaking with fear.

"What do you say? My boys are itching for some kind of reward tonight. Of course if you don't give us the money…" he trailed off as he rather obviously looked the girl up and down appreciatively. Ana felt like a rock had dropped in her stomach. Money or be killed and/or raped. It wasn't a fate she wished on anyone. She could see Claire begin to sweat with panic. Something in the man's voice and posture said that two of the three fates would be dealt no matter what. It was just her choice to choose.

But Claire wasn't given a chance to answer as a metal bar came out of nowhere and clamped down on the man's wrist and grew into a sort of shell, covering his hand and gun. He let out a shout as the other two men both dropped their own guns, cursing in pain.

"What the hell is this?!" The leader shouted, his other hand shooting out to grab Claire by the front of her shirt before she could move away. "You're one of those fucking Metas, aren't you!"

"No, no, I swear I'm not. I don't know what's going on!" She cried as he tightened his grip on her shirt. Ana cursed under her breath. Claire was nowhere near free of danger from the man and she was stuck in her seat. So much for being the protector friend.

"Don't lie to me, you bitch. I know either you or someone else in here is a meta!" He growled out.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion and fear. Metas were dangerous if not trained and made into a superhero or given a repressing treatment. Most had been found and given the supposed antidote, but rumors that there were still some out there had been floating around for some time now. The Justice League and Star Labs had done their best to find all the metas created by the Reach, but some had escaped their notice. And evidentially there was one within the little coffee shop. No one in the building could deny that.

"Find him!" The leader shouted again over the low murmurs of the hostages. The two henchmen glanced between themselves in concern, a look that Ana did not miss. These people were afraid. They were afraid of the freak that had made their guns flare white hot, that had encapsulated their leader's hand in metal. She fought back a smirk. Good. Let them be afraid of the freak with powers. It sure as hell beat being used or killed by these guys.

Despite their worry, the man that had been holding one of the customers hostage knelt and picked up his gun, keeping his eyes on everyone as he did so. But even as he watched his hostages he didn't take note of the slight twitch of Ana's hand as she tightened her grip on her pencil. A moment later he found that his gun had sunk into the wood floor only to be completely covered up and out of sight, let alone reach. He reeled back as his hand touched the floor instead of the metal he had been expecting and he looked around with the wide eyes of a deer caught in the headlights. There were chuckles from the hostages and the leader of the group let out a frustrated growl.

"You bastard, show yourself right now." He demanded.

"Or what?"

A new figure stood where the third robber had been only moments before, this one familiar and comforting to see. It was a man clad in a black suit of body armor, the only color coming from the blue bird symbol that spread across his chest. A mask covered his eyes but everyone in the room knew his name.

"Nightwing." The man spat the hero's name out as if it was venom in his mouth even as everyone else practically let out a sigh of relief.

Nightwing gave a smirk as he assessed the situation. It seemed someone had already incapacitated the thugs' ringleader, his hand being trapped in what seemed to be a metal dome. The other man appeared to be weaponless and looking more and more worried about his own wellbeing by the second. The third he had knocked out on the way in. None of the hostages appeared harmed, aside from the barista whose shirt was still within the leader's grasp.

"I'd say I was here to save these people, but it seems someone beat me to it." The hero stepped over the unconscious man and approached the leader. "So let's just skip to the part where you're in handcuffs and the police arrive."

The man growled and tightened his grip on the Claire's shirt to the point that it was choking her. "You take one more step and she dies."

Nightwing's hand went toward one of his escrima sticks, but just before he could grab it the man dropped the girl, yowling in pain and bringing his hand to his body. Nightwing narrowed his eyes as the man's hand seemed to be gaining lacerations from nowhere, the skin splitting open and spilling blood all over his clothing and the floor.

"Who the hell is doing this?" He demanded. No one responded. "I don't care if all of you are metas, you will regret this."

"Please shut up." Nightwing muttered as he hit the man's temple with his escrima, effectively knocking him out. He noted with curiosity that as the man fell the metal casing around his other hand seemed to disappear, as well as the lacerations on the hand he had been cradling. If it wasn't for the blood on the floor it would be as if nothing had happened.

Nightwing turned toward the third man, who he found was now kneeling on the ground with metal bindings around his hands and feet. The masked hero glanced around at the astonished and perplexed people for any hint of who may have done this. It was easy to assume that the one who had bound this man had been responsible for the casing on the other man's hand as well, though he wasn't quite sure about the wounds on his hand followed by the instant healing. There may well have been two metas within the group.

Only one person stood out to him, as she did not appear frightened or confused. A slender girl with auburn hair tied up in a messy bun surveyed the scene as if from a distance, her expression detached and bored, though there seemed to be something else hidden in her eyes. Smugness perhaps. Her dark eyes caught his own and whatever hidden emotion he thought he had seen disappeared into fear. _Why would she be afraid of me?_

Ana looked away quickly in a vain attempt in pretending that she hadn't met eyes with the hero. She didn't need the attention from someone like him and quite frankly his presence was only a nuisance to her. She didn't want to be anywhere near Nightwing - or any other superhero for that matter. What she needed and wanted was to get home. But she knew that wasn't going to happen until Nightwing gave the okay. She glanced over towards Claire, who appeared to be trying desperately to keep a panic attack at bay as Isaac attempted to calm her down. She needed to get home quickly. Knowing the blonde, Ana doubted that she had her medication with her. Claire rarely brought a purse with her anywhere, let alone to work.

She didn't know why she was the first one to move. In hindsight it was reckless and only drew more attention than necessary towards her. But both she and Claire needed to get home and she had spied her ticket out before the police could show up and question her. Slipping her sketchbook and pencils back into her backpack, Ana hoisted it onto her shoulders and stood, ignoring the stares that followed her. She was halfway across the room when Nightwing stopped her.

"Miss, you're going to need to stay here for the police to question and make sure you get home safely." He spoke gently but with an authority that came from years of having to take the savior role.

"I just want to make sure she's alright," Ana gestured towards Claire who had taken up refuge in a corner of the space behind the counter and was hugging herself tightly despite her coworker's attempts to calm her. "She and I live in the same building and if she doesn't get to her medicine not even the police will be able to question her. I'm sure you can allow that."

Nightwing glanced at the shivering barista. He had seen enough panic attacks to know that the red head in front of him was right. The girl needed to be somewhere she felt safe. The police could take her statement tomorrow. "Alright. I'll have them question her in the morning."

Ana wasted no time in slipping past him, repressing the urge to run out the door immediately. "Come on, Claire, let's get you home."

* * *

Ana groaned as she unlocked the door to her apartment. Tonight had been a close one. She was almost glad that Claire had been on the verge of a panic attack. At least it meant she could get out of there sooner. She couldn't stand being near superheroes, even if they were considered the heroes of the city or even the world. They were a danger to her.

Kicking off her shoes and slinging her backpack down beside them, Ana made her way to her room, leaving a trail of clothes as she stripped. She would clean them up in the morning. Right now she was too mentally drained to care about the state of her apartment. She had more important things to take care of.

A meow sounded from the bed as Ana entered the room and made a beeline for her dresser, pulling out a set of black pajamas and slipping them on. The cat strutted over to her, head cocked to the side and eyes wide with a desire to be pet. Ana smiled and picked up the feline. She had gotten the little cat, whom she had named Persephone, back when she was still in middle school as a gift from her aunt after her mother had passed away. Her brother had told her she was being morbid by naming the little torte colored cat after a goddess of the underworld, but Ana had been optimistic. Perhaps if the mythological Persephone could come and go from the underworld with the seasons maybe her own despair would turn to some sort of hope come spring. Regardless, the cat had become an anchor in her life and it was a relief to see the furry feline after the evening she had had.

Carrying the cat with her, Ana made her way over to her desk and opened the bottom drawer. Pulling out a large black journal, she placed Persephone on the ground despite the cat's indignant and demanding meows for more attention. Taking out a black pen, she flipped to a blank page and began to write.

 _Date: October 13, 2017_

 _The powers manifested in public. Nine, possibly ten witnesses. Location: Venus Coffee, Ravenwood Street, Gotham._

 _Witnesses: 2 baristas: Claire Lukas, Isaac Gardener. Three robbers (victims of the power). Four customers. Possibly Nightwing._

 _Occurrences: Once with metal encapsulating a man's hand and gun. Once burning the hands of two men via their guns. Once creating a portal in the floor through which a gun fell. Once creating lacerations on a man's hand: total seven lacerations. Once creating new skin where said lacerations occurred. Once with metal bands around a man's wrists and ankles._

 _Classifications: metal, infliction of injuries, healing, portals._

 _The power is stronger than before. No signs of physical illness or fatigue after using the power. Mental exhaustion lightly due to stress of the situation. No one suspects who the meta is. Avoided the suspicion of Nightwing._

She sighed and closed the log book. She was tired of writing these things down, trying to track who may have seen what and who may trace it back to her. For nine months she had been doing her best to hide and keep track of any time her powers manifested. She usually avoided using them at all costs, though there were exceptions such as tonight in which she was grateful to have been given her abilities. If they acted only at will she would perhaps consider herself lucky. After all, not even most superheroes had powers quite like hers.

* * *

A/N: I have been trying for so long to figure out how to write a YJ fanfic and I am very happy to have finally started writing. This chapter is just kind of an introduction to Anastasia who is far more than she appears to be. I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

1: 20PM; OCTOBER 15

GOTHAM UNIVERSITY

"It was insane! The guy was pointing his gun at Claire and then his whole hand was just covered in metal that came out of nowhere. He kept going on about there being a meta in the coffee shop." Isaac rambled on as Ana and Claire sat down at the table. The boy he was talking to, Ben, looked at the girls skeptically.

"That didn't actually happen, did it?" He asked them. Ana pursed her lips in annoyance. Of course Isaac would be telling everyone who would listen about the incident the other night. He never could learn to keep his mouth shut about anything.

Claire nodded in response, still too shaken by the events of that night to talk about it. She had taken off work for the rest of the week to recuperate a bit with Ana's help. Unlike the fearless Isaac, Claire had taken quite a mental toll from the attempted robbery. Ana supposed it was the difference between a witness and a person who was actually used as a hostage. She herself was only shaken up by the fact that her powers had been used in front of so many people. It was risky to just do something small and have one person see it. It was even worse when it was obvious in front of a roomful. There were only so many people someone could narrow it down to until they figured out her secret.

A loud cough brought Ana out of her reverie. She glared at Isaac who was looking at her oddly. Had she accidentally done something? Did he see something out of place?

"You know, Ana, you haven't said anything since taking Claire home last night. You okay?" His genuine concern shocked her. Isaac was the kind to make jokes about everything. If he was concerned about Ana it meant she was looking almost as bad as Claire.

Throwing a casual half smile on she responded, "Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure you're the only one that isn't somehow out of it. Between the robbery, meta, Nightwing showing up, and not to mention midterms coming up I'm surprised I'm even functioning like a human being."

Ben chuckled and leaned forward in his seat. "So there really was a meta there?"

Ana cursed herself for being so stupid as to mention her little display of power even indirectly. She reminded herself that Isaac had already brought up the subject and Claire had confirmed it for him. She wasn't saying anything the all-too-interested boy across from her didn't know already. Casually she shrugged. "Yeah, everyone saw it. The robber's hand got completely covered in metal. One guy's gun even disappeared into the floor."

Ben looked between her and Isaac, his eyes wide in disbelief. Ana couldn't really blame him. Metas rarely let themselves be known, let alone use their powers in public. She knew if she didn't do anything quickly he would start guessing at who it may have been and Isaac would only be too happy to join in on the speculation. _Just as long as they keep it away from me._

"Personally, I think it was the girls by the window. Didn't you see that guy's hand get torn apart by nothing? I think they were both metas working together." Ana declared, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms. Place the blame on someone else, then watch them fall into the trap. It was a tactic she had been using for the past ten months. Ever since she had gotten out of _that_ place.

"Nah, I'm sure it was the guy in the corner. That spot is way too dark to see what exactly someone is doing back there. Maybe he was saying some spells or something. Like Doctor Fate." Isaac took the bait exactly as she had planned.

Fifteen minutes later and the boys had determined that it was likely the girls as Ana had suggested. They had dubbed the pair "the Iron Maiden and Skin Ripper." _I'd hate to see what they'd come up with for me._ Ana mused as she stood and excused herself before heading off to class. She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked out of earshot from her friends. No doubt the next few days would be spent trying to spot "metas" around the university and coming up with ridiculous names for them. Ana remembered how they had did that very game the last time the boys had heard about a meta being found in Gotham. If she remembered correctly the last one found had been a boy with the ability to manipulate fire. "Pyro" Ben had dubbed him. Two days after his arrest it was announced that he had committed suicide while in Star Labs. Ana didn't believe it.

 _Who knows, maybe they'd call me 'God' or something like that._ She smirked to herself. It was an interesting notion for if she ever decided to give up her freedom for the only kind of job a meta could have that wouldn't drag her to a lab for "rehabilitation."

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Pulling it out she nearly rolled her eyes when she saw Isaac's name flash across her screen. / _What about 'Metal Man' if it was the guy in the corner?/_ She sighed and shook her head at the atrocious sounding name. "Iron Maiden" was a far far better name than that. At least it held an intimidation factor due to its association with the ancient torturing device.

She was about to text back when Ana bumped head first into something – or rather someone's back. She stumbled backwards and looked up at the impenetrable wall of flesh and muscle and nearly stumbled when she was met with an all too familiar pair of bright blue eyes set in an equally familiar and handsome face. _I guess if everything is going to start going downhill it might as all go at once, huh._

"I am so, so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." She mumbled, unsure if the man in front of her could really understand what she was saying. Of all the people in the university she could run into it had to be him. It had to be Dick Grayson, adoptive son of the man that had been responsible for her own ability to attend the school. The one person everyone within the university knew.

Dick looked down at the blushing red head and smiled. "Don't worry about it, I was in the way." The girl looked up at him as he spoke and he mentally swore. It was the girl from the coffee shop robbery, the one that had taken the barista home. She seemed more familiar than that though, as if he had seen her before but he couldn't quite place where. He didn't know if this was fate or just a lucky coincidence that it had been her of all people to run into him. Even now he could see the undercurrent of fear that sat behind her dark grey eyes, nearly swallowed up by the embarrassment of having run into an unmoving person. _Why is she still afraid?_

"I, um, I should get going. I'm so sorry about walking into you." She stammered out while Dick contemplated what his next move would be. The detective side of him said that she needed to be investigated, that she was the most likely to be the meta that had suddenly become big news in the city. A plan began to form in his mind as he discretely slipped a hand into his pocket only to bring it out a moment later.

"Aren't you in one of my classes?" He asked casually, suddenly recalling the red headed girl sitting in the back corner of his anatomy lab. That was where he had seen her before.

Ana stilled her attempt to leave. She had been sure no one had paid attention to her in her non-art classes. Usually she was invisible to people, her most noticeable feature being her red hair. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive or anything; more along the lines of there were usually more physically beautiful people around her to draw other's attention away. She considered herself to be at least average in the looks department with her loose curls and fairly slender frame with curves that she usually hid beneath button up shirts and tank tops. She hadn't wanted to be noticed, least of all by some billionaire's son.

Dick waited for her to respond, confused as to her sudden stillness and the myriad of emotions in her eyes. Fear, confusion, awkwardness, embarrassment. Had she thought no one would remember her?

"I…uh, maybe. Anatomy?" She reached a hand up to rub at the back of her neck subconsciously.

 _Then again, a lot of girls act like this._ Dick found this to be a far more reasonable explanation as to her behavior. It made more sense for this girl – he really did need to find out her name – was more embarrassed by running into and being remembered by Bruce Wayne's ward than by actually being remembered by anyone in particular. "The one with Ashley as the TA, right?" At the girl's nod he flashed her an easy smile and stuck out his hand. "I'm Dick Grayson by the way."

Gingerly she accepted the handshake. "Anastasia. Anastasia Markovitch." Pulling her hand back she seemed to shrink into herself. "I have to go to class. I uh, I'll see you around." She darted off before Dick could stop her or remind her that they both had the same class next.

Pulling out his phone he typed in a message to a number he had barely used in the last year and a half. Not since he had left the team.

* * *

GOTHAM CITY

7:15 PM OCTOBER 15

Ana didn't know why she was feeling so restless. She should have been happy that class had let out early today. She should have been enjoying the evening free of homework and responsibilities. But instead she just felt like something wasn't right, like something was going to happen or that someone was watching her. She fidgeted in her seat, her stomach suddenly disagreeing with the pizza that was her dinner. She glanced around nervously, making sure there was no one there to see her. As far as she could see she was alone.

With a sigh she flicked her hand beside her as if loosely gesturing towards her left. She felt a tingle run down her spine as a bottle of water appeared where nothing had been before. As she drank from it she wondered if she should be using her powers for such a simple task. It wasn't like she was unable to go and buy a water bottle from a vending machine, let alone any of the other stuff she tended to just _make._ She almost felt guilty for the feeling that she needed to use her powers, as if there was too much energy within her and she needed to let it out even if it was just to make food or water out of nothing.

When she first started experimenting with her abilities she had assumed that it was merely teleportation of whatever she desired that made the objects appear in front of her. She had tried it with several things: a piece of paper, a steak, bottle of wine, a pair of boots. Simple things. But when she had attempted to make a computer appear in front of her she had failed miserably. It seemed it was only basic items she could summon. Then she had tried to make the blue scarf that she was looking at appear before her. Instead of the scarf disappearing and reappearing in front of her she found herself with a duplicate. That was when she knew what it was she was actually doing. Compared to the potential she had a bottle of water was nothing.

Ana started as she heard footsteps make their way toward her bench. Whipping her head up she found a tall blonde girl walking her way clad in tight jeans and a brown leather jacket. She glanced at Ana, then at the empty three quarters of the bench and ambled over. Ana felt a tightness in her stomach at the girl's approach.

"Mind if I sit here?" The blonde girl's voice was slightly rough, though not in a mean way. Ana shook her head and gestured toward the seat, muttering a "go ahead" to her. There was no reason for her to decline the girl the empty seat. Chances were she wasn't going to even pay attention to her.

Ana pulled out her sketchbook, keeping an eye on the girl beside her who seemed to be looking at her phone rather intently. Deciding that the girl beside her wasn't suspicious she flipped to an empty page and focused on the flowers across the sidewalk from her and began sketching. If there was one thing that calmed her down it was drawing. And she certainly needed to calm down. Ana wondered vaguely if she was going through another bout of paranoia. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Ever since a year and a half ago she had been subject to fairly random episodes of paranoia. It had been that way since her powers had appeared. The drawing seemed to be the only way she could get her mind off things, almost as if it was a meditation. It was the one time she could create something naturally.

She was nearly halfway done with the drawing when the girl beside her spoke up, her voice interrupting Ana's peaceful focus. "You're Anastasia, right? My friend was talking about you earlier."

"Ah-nastasia." She automatically corrected quietly. She knew it was a common error and one she should have been used to by now, but Ana was rather particular about the pronunciation of her name. Most people read it as Annastasia much as this girl had just now, but truth be told the sound of her name pronounced that way irritated her. She much preferred the softer "Ah" in both her full name and nickname.

"Oh, sorry. I've only seen it typed out." The girl went on in that gentle but gravelly voice of hers.

Ana glanced at her in confusion. She wasn't sure who this friend of hers was that had mentioned her, but she was beginning to feel rather suspicious of the easy recognition by a stranger. Knowledge of her identity was a red flag in Ana's mind. "Who was it, that told you about me?"

Tact may not have been her best quality, but it seemed the girl beside her didn't mind too much. "Isabelle Grant. She said you were in her photo class."

That explained it. Isabelle was one of those people that had a tendency to tell people about every little aspect of her life. She was an excellent photographer even by professional standards, but she name dropped people no one knew about rather frequently. Lately she had been watching what Ana did like a hawk in class, seeming to believe that she could learn a thing or two from her simply because Ana's father was a professional photographer. Of course she would tell her friend about her.

Ana tried to repress the groan that automatically came up at the mention of the borderline fangirl. "Did she ask you to try to get some tips or something out of me?" The words unwittingly came out as a groan anyway.

The girl just chuckled at Ana's reaction. "No, but she did say that if I ever got the chance to meet you she wanted me to ask if you would hang out with her." Ana couldn't tell if the girl was joking or not. "I'm Artemis."

Ana suddenly had a flashback to a similar encounter earlier in the day. It seemed it was the day of meeting people that seemed just a tad too eager to introduce themselves to her. "I'd introduce myself as well, but it seems you already know who I am." Ana said awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it." Artemis waved her hand nonchalantly. "What are you drawing?" She leaned closer to look at the drawing. Ana instinctively half closed the book protectively.

"It's just a flower. One of the pansies over there." She pointed at the little flower bed illuminated by lamp light with her pencil.

"Can I see it?"

Ana frowned. As an artist she often was on the receiving end of this question, and she was never too fond of it. Most people assumed that all art was worthy of their viewing and that they could just look at whatever the person was drawing at any point in the process. Ana, however, hated people seeing her unfinished work (sans Claire, solely due to her being a fellow artist and thus able to appropriately give advice).

"No," Ana responded. "It's not ready to show anyone yet. I'll show you when I'm finished." She added before she could seem rude. So far Artemis seemed like a decent person and Ana was hesitant to make the wrong impression on her.

Artemis nodded in understanding, returning to her phone to let Ana finish her drawing in piece. Some part of Ana was happy to have the company. The blonde girl was certainly less invasive than Isaac and at the moment far better company than Claire (she felt bad for saying such a thing, but she had been taking care of her friend for the better part of the last two days and was in need of a break from the silent and morbid girl. Besides, it was Isaac's turn to help her out). She often forgot that Artemis was even there as she sketched away.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and Ana paused her work to pick it up and read the text.

 _/We're coming/_

She sat there completely frozen, not knowing how to respond. There was no number attached to the ominous text, no way to track where it had come from or who had sent it. Dread pooled in her stomach as she reread the words. _Did they find me? Did they know that it was me that was the meta that night?_ This was it. She was going to be brought to Star Labs and poked around like a guinea pig until they decided to inject her with the repressing serum, turning her back into a normal person.

In her distress she didn't notice the trickle of power that ran out of her hand onto her sketchbook.

"Um, Anastasia?" Artemis's voice brought her back to her surroundings. She followed the other girl's gaze and nearly had a heart attack at the sight before her. As clear as day and as real as her own body, a flower bloomed from the very spot she had drawn it.

* * *

A/N: Originally I had planned for this last scene to be with M'gann, but as I was writing I decided that Artemis would actually get along with Ana the best. Besides that, after Wally disappeared (I refuse to believe that he died) I feel like Artemis and Dick would have the closest relationship considering Wally was Artemis's boyfriend as well as Dick's best friend. They both lost one of the most important people in their lives and I feel that would have made them closer as friends. Also, I just love Artemis's character.

I swear the next chapter will be more action packed. These last two chapters have just been laying the groundwork for everything. And before anyone says that Ana is overpowered she does have limitations to make up for her having the power of freaking creation. Actually, her power was inspired by a conversation I had a few weeks ago over Frozen and Elsa's confusing powers (ice/snow/dresses/life). He suggested that her power is actually creation and that it primarily manifests as ice and snow due to that being the thing she feels connected with the most.

In case anyone is wondering, Ana is pronounced as Ah-nah, like the Ana from Frozen. It's a huge pet peeve of hers whenever someone calls her "Anna"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Bet

GOTHAM UNIVERSITY

8:00 PM OCTOBER 15

Ana stared at the little flower in horror, unsure of what to do. Her mind was running a million miles an hour. If that was someone from Star Labs that had sent that message then she was already doomed. If it was just a prank then she was paranoid. Artemis had seen the flower, she had seen Ana's power. There was no way to hide it now. Maybe I can just create a thought in her head that she didn't see anything. The thought was dismissed as quickly as it came. Ana didn't know exactly how thoughts worked or what made them and she didn't have time to learn now. There was no way to cover up her newest blunder.

"I…uh…magic trick?" Ana tried, but the words sounded like an awkward excuse and blatant lie even to her. She cringed as Artemis trained her eyes on her face.

"You're a meta, aren't you?" It wasn't a question, nor was it an accusation. Ana ducked her head and shut the book, effectively crushing the offending flower within the pages.

"Please. Please don't tell anyone. I swear I'm not dangerous. I just…it was an accident." Ana tried clumsily to explain. She doubted anything she said would fix the damage that had been done.

Artemis leaned back and fixed her with a serious stare. "I'm not going to tell anyone. You're not the first meta I've met – not even the first this year. You're secret's safe with me." She gave what Ana assumed was supposed to be a reassuring smile but it turned out more sympathetic than anything. She wanted to believe the girl, but in truth she couldn't even trust her own friends with a secret like this one.

"I have to go." Ana hurriedly stuffed her sketchbook in her bag and stood. She prayed Artemis couldn't see how shaky her legs were.

She ran off before anything more could be said. She didn't bother slowing down as her feet led her towards the more crowded areas of campus, choosing instead to just swerve around people. She needed to get home, to calm down, to look over the log book to see if there was ever any mistake, any slip that could have tipped the sender of the message off as to what she was. As far as she knew the only time she had ever been public with her powers was the robbery two days ago. Could it be one of the people that was there? She slowed as she approached the street, pausing as she waited for the pedestrian light to give the go ahead. I had been so careful. I barely even moved. Did I not react correctly?

The light flashed and she ran forward, weaving in between people and onto the next sidewalk. She didn't stop running until she was in front of her door. Fumbling with her keys she could hear the impatient meows of Persephone behind the door. At last finding the right one she stuck it in the lock and turned, swinging the door open immediately after. The cat wound around her owner's legs as she slammed the door shut and practically flew to her desk, reaching into the bottom drawer for the familiar journal.

Date: October 15, 2017

Powers manifested in public without conscious thought. One confirmed witness.

Witness: Artemis _

Occurance: Flower manifested on top of drawing.

Classification: plant

The power seems to manifest due to emotional distress without a command thought.

She put down her pen and flipped through the pages, searching desperately for when the sender of the text could have seen her. Aside from the last two public uses of her power there had been no witnesses. Occasionally she had used her powers around one of her three friends, but she had always been careful to make it seem as if nothing had happened; going into other rooms or reaching into her bag to "pull out" something she just happened to have had in there. She had been so careful. She scanned over the entry from two days ago and nearly threw the book across the room. Instead she settled with a hiss through her clenched teeth. She should have known.

From where she was winding around Ana's feet, Persephone let out a little meow, as if asking what it was Ana had found. Putting down the log of events she bent and picked up the attention seeking feline, whispering a name as she did so. "Nightwing."

* * *

BLUDHAVEN

8:12PM OCTOBER 15

/She's definitely a meta, but I don't think she's the one you were looking for./ The text left Dick confused as he read and reread it. He was so sure that Anastasia was the meta he was looking for. That was the entire reason he had had Artemis approach the girl. It would have seemed too suspicious if he had run into her twice in one day – though he had made sure to note where in his anatomy lecture she sat in case he needed to investigate her himself. Still, at least the request he had made of his former teammate hadn't gone to waste. It seemed the girl was at least a meta of some kind or other.

He shot back a text asking exactly what the girl's powers seemed to be and sat down at his desk. He blamed Batman entirely for having to find the meta from the coffee shop robbery. With Joker and Harley Quinn out on the loose in Gotham his former mentor couldn't leave the city unguarded even when he was out on a League mission. And with Red Robin and Batgirl away on a team mission he had been the only person Batman could trust to keep an eye out on the city. He had agreed. Maybe it was because Bludhaven had seemed to be quiet recently, or maybe it was the nostalgia that patrol in Gotham always brought him that made him agree to keeping an eye out over the city for the night. He had been expecting the typical robberies, attempted rapes, and maybe even an appearance by the infamous Joker. What he had not been expecting was to show up to an attempted robbery in a little coffee shop by the university only to find that someone had already negated most of the threat.

When he mentioned the meta to Batman he had been expecting for him to investigate himself. Nightwing was almost disappointed when he had stated otherwise.

"The team is busy tracking down the remaining members of the Light. Until the Joker is back in Arkham I will need you to investigate this case." Batman hadn't even looked up from his holoscreen as he passed the job off to his ex-pupil. "StarLabs wants all the metas accounted for. We can't be sure what side this one will be on. Which is why it is imperative you find them as soon as possible."

Nightwing had sighed in acceptance. Somehow he was still taking orders from Batman, despite his having left his team years ago. He had his suspicions about who the meta most likely was, so it was only natural that he be the one to investigate, despite the matter not being in his jurisdiction. Truth be told he was itching for some new action. Having been away from the team for over a year now he had found himself primarily going on patrols in Bludhaven and occasionally Gotham. With the exception of when some mastermind villain deemed it time to escape prison he had fallen into a far too comfortable rhythm that he was quickly growing tired of. He had considered more than once rejoining the team, if only for the rush that their missions gave him.

So when he was instructed to investigate some unknown meta he was vastly disappointed, but at the same time a little glimmer of hope shone through. Maybe this would give him the action he had been wanting. From what he had seen the meta seemed to have some sort of metal ability – possibly a healing power too – and was willing to use it. He almost regretted fantasizing about going toe to toe with them.

"If you think it is wise, I want you to recruit them for the team." Batman had said, drawing Nightwing away from his musings and back into reality. The older man was now regarding him with a look that seemed to say "I know what you're thinking." Nightwing nodded his acknowledgement of the orders. At least if things went well he could help the team.

His phone lit up again with Artemis's response and he read quickly, hoping to read the words "metal" or "healing." Instead he was disappointed with the response of /plants/. He frowned slightly. That was certainly not what he had been expecting. He had dearly been hoping for Anastasia to be the only meta he needed to worry about. He chewed on his lip as he contemplated the best course of action. He could always recruit her for the team and search for the other meta. That would be what Batman would want him to do. And since it was an assignment from the Dark Knight himself…

Dick sighed and set his phone back down, focusing instead on the computer in front of him. Files upon files had finally finished uploading from the computer at the Batcave, all of them pertaining to a certain Anastasia Elaine Markovitch. Most contained standard information: her license, birth certificate, school records, previous and current residences, etc. He had learned a long time ago to look over everything when it came to a suspect or target, leaving no page unturned no matter how tedious the task. Even if it resulted in his eyes burning from staring at a computer screen for too long.

As far as Dick could tell, Anastasia had had a fairly normal life thus far, albeit sad. Her mother, a former StarLabs research head, had died of cancer back in 2013, leaving Anastasia with only her father and brother. He felt a pang of sympathy as he read over Dr. Stephanie Fynes' obituary. He knew all too well how it felt to lose a parent.

The moment was short lived, however, when he clicked the doctor's photograph to get a better look. A frown appeared on his face. He had known this woman. She had been the leading scientist in studying how certain human heroes' powers worked and the path the brain waves took in order to allow usage of said powers. She was the closest person on Earth to have worked with meta genes before they had become a known genetic anomaly. He remembered having visited the labs with Wally back when he had first gotten his speed. The woman had monitored his brain as he ran, ordering him to do different maneuvers, to slow down and speed up and do everything he might do in a normal fight. Her work was brilliant. Dick wondered vaguely if Anastasia had been aware of her mother's experiments and research.

Shaking his head he exited the file and continued on, growing more and more tired as he searched through the files for anything else out of the ordinary.

Two hours later he was about to give up. No matter how impressive the girl's grades and success in art competitions were they didn't point towards any reason for her meta gene, let alone any association with the plants Artemis had claimed she was able to control. He was nearing the end of her social media anyway, signaling the last of the files.

Weird. The end of all of her online accounts had been the same day. March 23, 2016. Every single one of her accounts hadn't been updated since ten a.m. that day, followed by all of them being shut down two months later. Dick furrowed his eyebrows. Few people just dropped everything all at once unless they didn't want to be found. An idea occurred to him and he went back to her medical file, searching for something he had taken for granted before. June 1, 2016. It had been the last time any doctor had seen her. Nearly a year and a half of no appointments. For someone in excellent health that may have seemed completely normal, but Dick had seen her medical file. Asthma since she was nine, yearly visits for the flu, a broken arm, sprained foot, biyearly blood draws to check on her anemia, miscellaneous visits for illeness. Anastasia Markovitch was not what one would call the healthiest of people. Certainly not healthy enough to avoid any visits in nearly a year and a half. It was as if she was intentionally avoiding any medical examinations.

* * *

GOTHAM

6PM OCTOBER 17

Ana didn't care that she had avoided going outside of her apartment for any reason since Monday night. She didn't care about the concerned texts from her friends when she didn't show up to any of her classes or normal meet ups. She didn't dare even look at her phone for fear of that numberless sender.

For the past two days she had been cooped up in her apartment, flinching at any sound from outside her door. In her mind every footstep was someone from the government, every sigh of the wind a whispered voice. She was afraid to leave. Someone knew where she was and what she was, someone that had blatantly told her that they were coming. The rational part of her said that it would be best to run, to pack up her stuff and move somewhere new. A new city, a new crowd to get lost in, a new place in which no one knew her name or face or what she was. The other part of her – the part that was winning the internal argument of what to do – shouted that she needed to hide away, to stay where she felt safe, where the only one who could see her was a cat that was more than happy to have whatever she desired appear with the wave of her owner's hand and wasn't able to tell anyone what she had seen. That sounded like a far more feasible plan.

She had gone over her log book five times by now, each time coming to the same conclusion. Nightwing must have somehow figured out that it was her. She cursed herself for having been stupid enough to leave before they had been given the all clear. No doubt it had raised his suspicions of her. She had been too hasty, too unnecessarily eager to leave once the hero had arrived. She should have just stayed there until the police had taken everyone's statements.

But Claire needed to get home. Ana groaned at the traitorous thought, slouching even lower on her couch. A part of her wished that Isaac had taken her home instead, despite not living in the same apartment complex. At least it would have taken the suspicion off of her.

Her phone buzzed for what seemed like the fifth time in just as many minutes, drawing Ana's attention toward it. Despite not wanting to, she glanced at the messages on the screen. Three from Ben, five from Claire, and twelve from Isaac. She grimaced at the thought of reading the latter's messages. No doubt he was trying to determine exactly where she was, if she was okay, why she hadn't been answering her phone, and if he needed to beat someone up for her. Just the usual questions. She couldn't exactly answer honestly. "Oh, I'm at home too scared to leave the place because someone sent me an ominous text saying that they were coming and I'm pretty sure it's because they figured out that I'm actually a meta that has been trying to hide from the government and StarLabs for the last year and a half. I'm about ninety percent sure it's actually Nightwing that figured me out and unless you can actually stand your ground in a fight against a superhero I'd suggest you don't even bother trying to fight him." Yeah. No. But she couldn't completely avoid their questions either.

/Don't worry, I'm just sick. I should be better in a day or two./ She sent the text to all three of them, answering all of their questions simultaneously. A small part of her hated lying to them, but she quickly squashed it down. She had accepted a while ago that she would have to lie to them in order to keep herself safe. As much as she was loath to admit it, she couldn't even trust them with her secret.

With a sigh Ana turned her phone off, tossing it to the end of the couch. She needed to actually do something. She was far too restless of a person to allow herself to just do nothing, even if she didn't plan on leaving. Standing up, she moved around the room, looking for anything that needed to be done. Since Monday she hadn't had the energy or inspiration to draw, having lost the urge to the moment she got that text. In truth, she hadn't dared open her sketchbook since that night. She didn't want to see where the flower had been squished between the pages, proof that her secret was known by at least one person.

She glanced at her backpack once before changing directions, intent on changing Persephone's litter box instead. Perhaps the mundane activity would give her something to focus on other than her distress.

She was all set to clean out the box when a chilling realization occurred to Ana. There was no more clean cat litter and it just happened to be one thing she couldn't create. She sat crouched on the ground staring at the offending empty bucket for a minute, Persephone meowing at her to hurry up. It was unreasonable, she told herself, that she be so scared by an empty bucket of cat litter.

Taking a few deep breaths she stood up. There was no reason to be afraid of merely going to the grocery store. With her powers this was one of the few things she actually had to buy. She had done it dozens of times before. It was easy. Put on some shoes, grab her purse, drive down to the wal-mart two blocks over, buy some cat litter, and drive home. There was no reason to be afraid.

Repeating those words in her head, she threw on a jacket and shoes, grabbing the purse that sat by the front door. It was easy. All she had to do was open the door.

It took her several moments before Ana could steel herself enough to actually turn the door knob, opening the door slowly as if she expected something to jump out and grab her as soon as it was fully opened. Upon seeing the empty hall in front of her she let out a relieved sigh. She could do this. Before she lost her resolve she stepped out, locking the door behind her.

It didn't take her long to make it all the way down to the street and into her car. It was almost a relief to sit down on the cool leather, the barrier between her and the outside world a welcomed comfort. After a moment she pulled out of the parking lot and drove off.

* * *

He would make contact tonight. He would approach her calmly, try not to frighten her off. Artemis had warned him that she had run away as soon as the flower had appeared. He had to play his cards just right.

From where he was perched on the roof of a nearby building Nightwing could clearly see the girl as she walked out of the grocery store, a large yellow bucket in her hand. She was nervous, he noted, as he watched her hurriedly head back to her car, looking around everywhere and jumping at the slightest of provocations. He frowned at the thought of having to recruit a person like her onto the team, powers or not. She wouldn't even last a week. Oh well. That's Batman's problem, not mine. It wasn't like he'd see her for a while anyway after she joined the team. He was just recently getting back into the superhero business after a year long break. Even if he did rejoin the team it wouldn't be until after she was done with training.

As the girl got in her car and shut the door behind her he stood from his crouch and pulled out his grappling gun. He doubted she was going far as her apartment was only a five minute drive away. Still, that meant he would be too slow on foot.

Shooting the grappling hook at another building he leapt off, relishing the wind that caught on his skin during the jump. It was short lived though as he landed in the alleyway in which he had stashed his motorcycle. Without hesitation he hopped on and drove out of the alley, being careful to make sure the girl wouldn't see him following her. He turned on the tracker he had used to follow her to the store with and instantly found her vehicle. At least following her was easy. He doubted talking would be nearly as effortless.

Only a few minutes later and he was pulling into the alley beside the apartment complex, shutting off the engine quickly. He needed to approach her before she got inside. Having a superhero show up at your door tended to be bad news.

Keeping to the shadows, he watched Anastasia exit her car, the yellow bucket in tow. Now that he was close enough he noted with almost amusement that the thing she was carrying – the only thing to have gotten her out of her home – was cat litter. Somehow he had expected something else. Steeling his features and pushing the amusement to the back of his mind he stepped out into the street light, his footsteps silent as he approached her. He had rehearsed his lines all day, fully intending to recruit her. Batman would be less than pleased if he failed.

Clearing his voice, he stepped up right beside her. "Anastasia Markovitch?" He kept his voice deeper than usual. This girl knew his civilian self, she didn't need to make any connections between Dick Grayson and Nightwing.

Ana nearly dropped the heavy bucket of cat litter when she heard her name being called. She swung her head around quickly, eyes wide as saucers. No. She had only been out of the house for roughly twenty minutes, how could they have found her already?

Her grip tightened on the bucket as she realized who had spoken, half of his body illuminated by the streetlamp. She knew it. She knew that it had been him of all people to have figured out her secret. A small part of her was rather satisfied that she had figured out the identity of the unidentified number before he had made himself known. The other part that was currently in control of her actions was terrified. He was there to take her away, drag her to StarLabs and strip her of her powers, turn her into just another test subject.

"You are a meta, correct?" He spoke in such an authoritative fashion that made his words seem less like a question and more of a formality. Ana nodded, unable to lie when he already knew the truth.

Nightwing nodded as if expecting as much and that little motion somehow annoyed Ana. She pursed her lips, unable to decide if she should be more annoyed with or wary of the superhero before her.

Nightwing took a deep breath as if his next words would pain him. "Batman would like to meet you. Offer you a job." Those were definitely not the words he had rehearsed. He had made a short speech on the opportunity they were offering this girl, how joining the team would help to protect her, train her, make her into a hero. Usually he was good at these things, but something in her curious but guarded expression had made him jump straight to the point.

Ana shook her head and took a step back. "Nope. Not a chance." She let out a humorless laugh as she stepped further back as Nightwing matched her pace, not letting her get away quite yet. "You 'heroes' have just been sending people like me to StarLabs when we aren't already a superhero. I'm not going there."

Nightwing cocked his head in genuine confusion. While it was true that they had brought several metas they had rescued from the Reach to the labs to help train them in their powers they had not been actively seeking out other metas unless they had been a threat. This girl seemed to be acting as if metas were being hunted down.

He voiced as much and Ana scoffed, her fear quickly turning into annoyance and irritation. In a sneer she said, "Tell that to the ones that got hunted down, experimented on like animals, and then had their powers removed. I have no interest in being treated like a lab rat." Ever again were the words she left off the end. No need to give him any hints as to her past.

Nightwing narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't know what she was talking about. "We are not hunting metas down. The only reason I am here is to offer you a chance to use your powers for good. Not to bring you to StarLabs, and certainly not to strip you of them." His voice had taken on an almost annoyed tone.

Ana studied him for a moment. Despite her own preconceived distrust of superheroes he didn't seem to be lying. His jaw was set firmly, his eyes not leaving her face – at least she assumed so. It was kind of hard to tell with a mask in the way. He seemed to truly not know about the hunting down of metas.

She chewed on her lip in thought, eyeing Nightwing cautiously. In her mind she had two options: join and risk the consequences, or somehow manage to run away to where he couldn't find her again. Her eyes flitted to her car before ditching the idea. She wouldn't have the time to actually make it to the car. His reflexes were likely far faster than she was and with the bucket of cat litter in her hands she was considerably slower. Even if she dropped it he'd catch her before she could even make it to the door. Besides, she couldn't leave Persephone alone.

An idea ran through her head, a dangerous, risky idea that would work if she managed to pull it off. Even if Nightwing had seen her powers in action she highly doubted he knew exactly what they were. She herself had been in utter confusion the first few months.

Tilting her head up to meet his eyes, Ana prayed he'd be as confused as she had been. It was her only shot at a relatively normal life. Hero, stripped, or fugitive. Those were her only options in life unless she got this right. Taking a deep breath she spoke, "I'll make you a deal. Win and I will do what you say – I'll join your little hero business. But if you lose I get to leave here and no one is going to come after me. I get to live completely unbothered by you or any other 'hero' interested in my powers." There was much more confidence in her voice than she had expected, though it pleased her. Maybe if she seemed sure of herself then Nightwing would take the bait.

Nightwing smirked. He had been trained by Batman in the arts of fighting and investigation. Whatever deal this girl was thinking of he was sure he would win. "What's the deal?"

"Tell me what my powers are."

* * *

A/N: So I hope that explains why Nightwing was in Gotham. Honestly, Batman can't be everywhere at once, especially when he's part of the Justice League, and same thing for Red Robin and Batgirl. Gotham is Nightwing's hometown so there's no one Batman would trust more than him to keep an eye on things while he's away (plus the guy has to have a break sometime).

As to her powers, I am intentionally making them confusing for now, but I swear there is a reason they are what they are...you will just have to wait until Nightwing figures it out. If anyone wants to guess what's up with her powers feel free to try, but I won't be able to say yes or no until it is revealed in the story.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Guessing

GOTHAM

3:30PM OCTOBER 19

' _Plants'_. Ana flipped the little piece of paper over, looking for anything else on it. All there was was the single word and a tiny bird symbol that was more of a poorly drawn version of Nightwing's symbol than anything else. She sighed and shook her head, unable to figure out if she should be irritated or amused at his first guess. Clearly he had seen the flower from a few days ago, but had forgotten about the metal that had been present the night of the robbery. _Fine by me._ It was easier for her if he focused on one or the other. It only wasted his time.

 _Two weeks. Two weeks of this and I'll be free._ Ana mused as she left the lobby of her apartment complex and began her walk to school. Two weeks had been the limit she gave Nightwing before he would be forced to give up on his guessing and quest to make her a superhero. To be honest she was looking forward to their little game. It would be a miracle if he figured out her powers in less than the two weeks she had given him, even if he was Batman's former protégé. As far as she was concerned the only person with more confusing powers than hers were Elsa's from _Frozen._ At least Ana's had limitations and a pattern as opposed to the snow/ice/life/dressmaking that the Disney character could do.

Ana was practically skipping as she got on campus, smiling to herself as she strolled along the sidewalks. She was in a far better mood than she had been in the last several days, possibly weeks. All she needed was to get through her next class and all would be perfect.

It wasn't until she stepped into the lab room that her happy mood turned dull again as she spied the only other person to have arrived. He was sitting facing towards the door, his head bent over his phone. Ana scouted the quickest way to get past him and make it to her own seat in the far back corner. With quiet steps she walked past him and toward the rear of the classroom, a faint whiff of formaldehyde coming from the TA's desk causing her to wrinkle her nose. She had gotten halfway across the room when she heard the squeak of a stool scooting back and a foot hit the ground. Ana's eye twitched in annoyance. And she had been having _such_ a good day.

She sat down just as Dick made his way over to her, his backpack mercifully left behind at his usual seat. Ana ignored him as best as she could as she pulled out a notebook and pencil, wishing seriously that she had remembered her headphones. She kept repeating Monday's encounter with the admittedly handsome guy in her head, feeling her neck redden in embarrassment.

"I didn't see you in lecture yesterday. Do you need notes?"

Ana looked at him quizzically, unsure how he knew she hadn't been there. Last she checked she had had only one interaction with the young man in her entire life and it had been when she ran into him. Hardly a reason for him to notice her absence.

She glanced at her notebook though, knowing she needed the notes. The professor did have a habit of putting important test material in their lectures. With a barely audible sigh she nodded. "Yeah, thanks. How did you know I didn't go?"

Dick shrugged nonchalantly as he handed her the open notebook he had brought with him. "I wanted to apologize for making things awkward the other day when we met. I thought I could possibly find you in class, but I didn't see you there so I assumed you skipped." He flashed a lopsided grin as she flipped to a blank page and began copying his notes.

Ana didn't see it though and let out a snort, her head bent over the notes. "Trust me, I'm more awkward than you. No need to apologize."

They settled into silence as she scribbled away, noting briefly just how different their handwriting was from one another. His was neat and perfectly spaced between words; hers looked more like scribbles as the cursive letters flowed into one another. She had always wanted legible handwriting, but even when she tried to make it somewhat neat it was unreadable to most people.

Dick studied her out of the corner of his eye as people began to fill the classroom. He needed to figure out what this girl's powers were exactly if he wanted to get her on the team. The way she had said it last night, _"Tell me what my powers are,"_ made it sound as if she wasn't as simple as he assumed. She had issued him a challenge, one she seemed confident in his inability to succeed in. He was almost certain she had been the meta in the coffee shop the day he had run across her, despite his first guess. It was all he could think of that she was confirmed to be able to do. If he was wrong – which he had the feeling he was – he needed to figure out what the right answer was and the only way to do that would be to get close to her.

He wasn't opposed to the idea of getting to know the red haired girl necessarily. She was interesting as far as he had seen. A little awkward, but in a way that almost made her charming. The only thing that concerned him was the possibility of her connecting the dots between his – Dick's – sudden interest in getting to know her and the appearance of Nightwing. He had seen her grades throughout her years in school as well as her exam scores – the girl was rather intelligent. He would have to be careful.

Abruptly, Ana pushed the notebook back towards him, flipping to a new page in her journal to signal her finishing copying his notes. At her muttered thanks Dick stood and walked back toward his own seat, ignoring the curious glances his lab partner was giving him as he crossed the room. All he really needed to do was play his cards right.

Two hours later Ana was out the door and down the hall before Dick had even put his stuff back in his backpack. He groaned inwardly. This was going to be extremely difficult if he couldn't get the chance to actually talk to her. A thought occurred to him briefly and he contemplated on following it through. Maybe he didn't need to do this on his own. Batman had ordered him to recruit the girl onto the team and Anastasia had given him the challenge. There was no reason he couldn't call in the one person that might be able to actually get some answers out of the elusive red head. After all, Artemis already knew the girl was a meta. Maybe her knowledge of what Anastasia was would give her a leg up in convincing the girl to trust her.

Hurrying outside, Dick had his phone pressed against his ear and dialing before he was even out of the building. Artemis picked up after two rings.

" _What's up, Dick?"_ She sounded tired and Dick remembered then that she had been on a mission the night before with Tim and the rest of the team. Something about a run in with Klarion the witch boy. Tim hadn't given him many details.

Pushing that aside, Dick proceeded to relay his plan to Artemis. In his mind he could see her raised eyebrow and bored expression. Even he had to admit that this was one of the most mundane missions he had ever done. No action, no excitement, just a challenge by a girl that he had been ordered to recruit for a team he was no longer on. "I have two weeks to figure out what her powers are and since you already know she's a meta she might open up more to you than to me." The words came out almost sheepishly. Honestly, he didn't want to admit that he might need a little bit of help with such an _easy_ job, but he had been through her files twice now and had only found the one thing to indicate her powers, and all it helped with was to give a time frame of when they had appeared.

Artemis was quiet on the other line for a moment before responding. _"You know if she does join the team you'll be expected to as well."_

Dick was well aware that that was the main reason Batman had put him up to this task. He had only put up the mask for a few months before donning it again, but then it was only as a solo hero. Occasionally he would team up with Batman or Red Robin for old times' sake or as a favor, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to actually return to the team. The only ones he had even spoken to in that time had been those that knew his identity: the original team, Red Robin, and Batgirl (he didn't count Impulse or Beast Boy in that group considering he hadn't wanted them to actually know who he was). Truth be told they had all been trying to bring him back to the team, but after all that had happened…after losing Wally…he wasn't sure it was the best choice. He didn't know if he wanted to go back, let alone if he could.

With a sigh he responded, "I know."

" _Then you know I'll only do this if you promise to come back if we do manage to get her to join."_

Dick sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. He was making more deals with people than he liked. "Fine."

He heard a small chuckle on the other side of the phone followed by Artemis saying, _"Then we have a deal."_

Putting the phone back in his pocket he decided to go over Anastasia's files one more time. The sooner he figured out what her powers were the sooner he only had one deal to worry about.

* * *

OCTOBER 22

There was a new card waiting for her in her mail box when she opened it that morning. Evidently the masked hero had gotten her response, a simple 'no' written on the back of his first guess that she had slipped back into her mail box. Today's guess was still wrong and it brought a smile to her face as she scribbled another 'no' on the back of this card. She was surprised metal hadn't been his first guess since he had been at the coffee shop when she had created the metal that wrapped around one man's hand and another's body. Maybe he had suspected her and had only confirmed the plant by spying on her when she had been talking with the blonde girl, bringing plants to the forefront of his mind. Either way he was as wrong as he was with his other guesses. It was amusing to see him dance around different aspects of her power but never actually grasp what it was.

She practically bounced on her feet as she made her way back up the stairs to her apartment. Since that night there had been no creepy texts, though she still needed to confirm that it had been Nightwing that had sent it to her. As far as she knew the only people that knew about her powers were him and the Artemis girl from the other night.

Ana bit her lip at the thought of the other girl. Ana had run off with no explanation, no real reason to believe that she would keep her secret. She didn't even trust her friends that she had known for years with her little secret; how was she supposed to trust a stranger she knew nothing about? _Oh well, it's not like this could be any worse anyway. Nightwing already found me. Besides, it's not like she knows him or that we have a deal going on. At the most she could tell the authorities and they'd just refer it to the superheroes._ She almost chuckled at the thought of the police telling some hero – Batman most likely – that there was a meta in his city that wasn't causing any trouble except to a different hero in the form of a wager. A wager that she was likely to win, in which case her freedom from all superheroes and authorities trying to capture her just because she was a little different would be all but assured. One random girl knowing her secret was nothing compared to that fantasy.

As she got to the top of the third set of stairs Ana was met with a familiar face waiting outside her door, knocking rather obnoxiously. She scowled and cleared her throat, drawing the attention of her visitor.

"There you are, Ana, I've been waiting for like five minutes." Isaac flashed her a lopsided grin that would make most girls blush or smile back at him. Ana, however, was immune to her friend's charms due to her proximity to him throughout much of her life. Instead, she raised an eyebrow and pushed past him to unlock her door.

"Oh come on, don't be like that. I just came here to cheer you up a bit." He whined in a faux-hurt voice as Ana opened the door, leaving it wide open for Isaac to follow after her.

Dropping her mail on the kitchen bar she sat rolled her eyes. "I was in a good mood before I saw you up here." She retorted with a bit more bite than she intended.

Isaac slipped off his shoes and leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest casually. "You wound me, princess. And here I came to tell you something that might interest you."

Ana tilted her head, her interest piqued. She was nothing if not curious. "What's that?" She kept her voice even, her eyes trained on his brown ones. Isaac smirked.

"Well if I told you now it would ruin all of the fun, now wouldn't it?"

Ana felt the urge to make a snake appear on her friend's shoulders if only to get him to talk, but she quickly squashed down the urge. She didn't want him to know about her powers and she didn't know how to make a snake anyway. There were simply too many parts to memorize the placements of.

Something in her eyes must have tipped him off that she wanted to know what he had to say immediately, because Isaac pushed off the doorframe and crossed the room to stand in front of her. Ana watched him carefully, ready to slap him if need be. Isaac had tried a few too many times to make a move on her – six times to be exact – and his proximity made her wary, particularly when in the privacy of an apartment in which the only other occupant was a cat that happened to like him.

"I heard down the grapevine that there's going to be a school gala at the end of finals week. Care to join me?" He smiled and stepped forward just a tad more, just enough to make Ana instinctively back up.

"Sorry, but I'm not going." She stated as she moved out of his arm's reach. She had flashbacks to her senior prom in high school, during which Isaac had actually been her date. He had had more hands than an octopus and the night had ended with her ditching him and getting a ride with Claire and her date. She vaguely wondered why she was still friends with the guy.

Isaac frowned at her response, clearly hoping she would respond positively. Ana didn't care however. She wasn't going to some gala regardless of who offered to be her date. There would be too many people, too many things to overwhelm her with and risk her own exposure. She didn't care if Dick Grayson himself asked her to accompany him, she still wouldn't go.

"Look, Isaac, I need to go run some errands. We can talk some other time. Why don't you ask Claire instead? I'm sure she would love to go." Ana headed back towards the door, eager to get out of the apartment as long as he was there. The isolation and his body language only served to make her nervous about being there. She wanted him to leave and the easiest way would be to leave as well. She knew full well that Isaac hated being in other people's homes by himself.

The boy shrugged, his demeanor having taken a complete one-eighty at her dismissal of his proposal. He followed her out the door anyway despite them having just entered. Ana prayed he would follow her advice and ask their other friend rather than just follow her around. Truth be told she had nowhere to actually be aside from away from him. She wished more than once over the years that he would simply give up on her. They had tried and failed. End of story.

With satisfaction she watched him turn towards Claire's door as they passed the second floor on the way down. Just a moment later and he was knocking, leaving Ana to mercifully leave the building alone. She let out a sigh of relief as she exited, not at all feeling guilty about pushing the annoying boy onto her friend. Out of the two of them Claire could handle Isaac's antics the best. That was probably why he was still in their little friend group.

Despite not truly having any purpose for leaving Ana found herself walking down the sidewalk in the direction of her favorite coffee shop. She paused at the doorway, memories of the last time she had been there flashing through her mind. That was where her problems started this time. No one had known in the last year and a half until that night.

She shook her head and walked past. Maybe if she just took a walk around the block it would kill enough time to satisfy her excuse of having errands to run. It was still daylight out – albeit that would soon go away – and with her abilities she couldn't really say she was afraid of anything happening.

Halfway around the block her phone buzzed in her pocket.

 _/We're coming/_

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry this is so short. It's the last couple weeks of the semester so I'm super swamped with essays and projects so forgive me if I'm not posting regularly. I know this chapter was really boring, it's more of a transition chapter really. The next one is going to have way more action in it I promise. There wouldn't be these creepy texts if I wasn't planning on throwing action in soon.

Fun fact: Ana's cat is actually based on my own cat, but I had to change the name solely because mine is named Artemis (after the Greek goddess, not the YJ character). I wanted to stick to the Greek goddess theme with Ana's cat so it was between Persephone and Athena. And we all know which one won. Also for those who are curious, Nightwing's other two guesses were life and illusions.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Ana quickened her pace, turning back the way she had come. She had been so confident in her initial assumption that Nightwing had been the source of the first message, but now she wasn't so sure. He had already been in contact with her, why would he need to send some cryptic and creepy text again? She already had a deal with him and he had been diligently been leaving his guesses in her mailbox, not texting her. This behavior certainly didn't match his. Let alone the usage of the word "we". Ana had noted days ago that Nightwing seldom if ever worked with others, and the times he did were for catching criminals, not for recruiting some unknown meta. It didn't make sense. Which left only one other logical explanation: someone else figured out what she was. Someone who knew who she was and how to contact her or at least had the ability to do so. Batman? No, Nightwing had stated that he was trying to recruit her on behalf of Gotham's dark knight. So who was it?

A chill in the air made her shiver as she considered this, clutching the strap of her back with a death grip as she sped down the sidewalk. Someone knew who and what she was, had a way to contact her, and she was clueless as to who it was. She wondered how long they had known her little secret. Was it as she suspected and they had only discovered her after the incident at the coffee shop (her actions during which she was quickly despising and regretting). Or had whoever this was that was sending her texts been following her for some time now and their timing be mere coincidence? She blanched at the thought.

Her phone buzzed again, lighting up in her hand. Out of sheer habit she looked down to read the message. / _Where do you think you're going?/_ A knot formed in her stomach. They knew she was on the move, they could see her. Sweat beaded up on the back of her neck and she began flat out running. She could almost see her apartment now, just a little further….

Something collided with her side harshly, sending Ana sprawling into an alley. She grunted as she hit the rough pavement, her phone sliding out of reach. She could feel the torn flesh beneath her jeans and on her hands and arm from where she had collided with the ground. Ana tried to sit up but as she moved a hand pushed her down, pinning her down harshly as the person maneuvered themselves to be straddling her stomach. With one arm pinned against the ground and the other held captive it was impossible for Ana to somehow push him off, particularly when he was too heavy to roll off.

"Why are you running away?" Someone her asked from the shadows. Ana looked around, straining her eyes in an attempt to locate the speaker. The person on top of her gripped her hair to keep her head still, causing her to yelp in pain and glare at him instead.

"Oh dear, that won't do." The voice tutted in disapproval. Then to someone else, "Shadow, bind her."

A smooth substance rose from the ground and wrapped itself around her legs and arms, then her chest and neck, making it impossible to move even as the person that had been holding her down got up, removing their rough hands from her. This new binding was only mildly more preferable, but it confirmed one thing to Ana. Whoever these people were they were most certainly metas. Or at least one of them was.

"What the hell do you want?" Ana demanded, her voice quiet and wavering much more than intended. She couldn't help it as the panic set in. She was beginning to become light headed and breathing was becoming difficult. Even now she was unable to take in a full breath, leaving very little air to use to speak.

The speaker of the group chuckled. "You don't actually have to ask that question do you? You're even more naïve than I thought." He stepped out of the shadows just enough for Ana to see, though that did little to identify her captor. A gray mask covered much of his face, a thin filter of fabric over the eyes so as to make them hidden from view. All that she could tell was that he was young, around her age probably, and had light brown hair that hung down to his neck.

"See, Ana, we're here to save you. To invite you to join us – other metas like you who were made against our will." He knelt and cupped her chin with a calloused finger, tilting her head back slightly so as to look in her fear filled eyes. "I've seen what you are capable of. We want you – need you – to help us. We're going to create a new world, one that accepts metas and treats us as we deserve. The Justice League would have us all turned back into normal people: the defenseless freaks and losers that we were before. They want all the power for themselves so that the world looks at them like they are _gods."_ His voice was bitter with loathing as he spat the words out.

He was about to say something else when a _thump_ sounded where one of the others had been standing just inside the shadows. The man looked up sharply, releasing Ana's chin as he did so, much to her relief. "Who is there?"

Another _thump_ that Ana realized was the sound of a body hitting the ground and a figure stepped out into the dim light. She would never admit it, but her heart leapt at the sight of the familiar blue and black suit adorning the newcomer.

"You know, I'm glad you had your whole little speech about why you're here and all, but the lady looks a little uncomfortable." Nightwing drawled with a nod towards Ana, though his eyes never left the other man's.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Bludhaven?" The man's voice was curt and full of venom as he addressed the hero.

Nightwing merely shrugged nonchalantly. "I was in the neighborhood."

"Bullshit. You've got your eye on her too, don't you." The accusation was practically shouted, "You probably don't even know what she's capable of, do you? Little Ana here is the key to the future, the one that can pave the way to a world where _powerless_ people like you aren't needed; where the only heroes in this world are ones that actually have powers. No more Batman. No more Arrows. No more _you._ "

"You know, you really have a thing for long winded rants." Was Nightwing's only response before springing into action, his escrima sticks practically a blur in the air as he attacked. The meta merely laughed and waved a hand, a streak of blue and white emerging and colliding with Nightwing's chest. The hero stumbled back, caught off guard by the counter.

"Shadow, now!" Was the order followed by black tendrils snaking up from the darkness and wrapping around Nightwing's legs. He fought against it as the meta sauntered over to him. "Don't you see? Metas are the future. You're no longer needed in this world." White and blue flashed again around his hand as he stretched it out. "You'll be the first example." He brought his fist back and threw it forward…

Only to collide painfully with the metal wall that had appeared in front of him. The man spun around to glare at where Ana was still trapped by the same dark bindings that held Nightwing, her hand palm down on the ground and steel in her eyes.

Ana had been panicking when it was just her, but now that another life was in danger she didn't care so much about her own safety, her own secret that those in the immediate vicinity already knew about. She didn't even care if this would lead to Nightwing's guessing the truth. Seeing someone else in danger had pushed down the terror enough for her to act even as constricted as she was. It was the same way she had brought herself to act the night of the attempted robbery; the thing that had turned her into what she now was in the first place. As soon as Nightwing had been hit with the lightning she knew she had to act, damn the consequences. The wall had been the first stage of her little plan, sealing the meta off from further harming the hero.

Stage two was a little more complex, and she prayed she got every little detail right. She could see it in her mind, working up and up, the iron building itself from the ground up around the meta. Each layer carefully placed, interlocking with the one before it. Wood on the inside, a coating that wouldn't take well to the electricity. Iron on the outside to withstand any physical attempts to break out. Piece by piece she built it from the ground up, though to anyone else it seemed as though it had appeared within a moment. When she was done an iron coffin stood upright in the middle of the alley, the only holes being at the bottom for air. The meta himself was nowhere to be seen, though Ana knew very well that he stood as a prisoner in her coffin.

Rescinding the metal wall, she refused to look at Nightwing even as he bolted forward, free of his restraints. The lightheadedness had come back, though for a much different reason than before. She could feel her shackles slide away into nothing, releasing her at last. She looked around for the source, the meta called "Shadow" but found no one aside from the two unconscious forms still slumped against the alley wall. Gingerly she sat up and watched as Nightwing took out a pair of zip ties from one of his belt pouches and proceeded to tie the unconscious pair's hands behind their backs and then call for police.

Nightwing met her gaze and she abruptly looked away. This was it, the moment he proclaimed her too dangerous to keep her powers. She prayed she would at least get one phone call before she was taken away to StarLabs to be experimented on and rehabilitated. Someone needed to know she was gone so they could take care of Persephone. Maybe she would get lucky and they would let her take the cat with her.

She heard the near inaudible crunch of footsteps before she felt a gentle hand land on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" Nightwing's voice was soft, the kind of voice one would use when trying not to scare a wounded animal. Still she refused to look up.

"Just some scrapes, nothing some alcohol and band aids won't fix." She gave a weak smile in a vain attempt to seem put together. She could almost imagine the hero rolling his eyes behind his mask. "Is this when you drag me away for StarLabs to do something about my powers?" She bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. That thought combined with what had just happened brought her dangerously close to her breaking point. Even if he didn't take her away what was she going to do? At least one meta had gotten away and knew about her. The man had made it seem like there were far more metas involved in his little revolution than there were here, so what if someone else came for her? And what about when the coffin disappeared? Something that large would surely disappear faster than most of the other things she had made, meaning that the person inside of it would be free in only a matter of time.

"You're not going to StarLabs unless you want to." Nightwing's voice broke through her train of thoughts and forcing her to look at him. "I made a deal with you that if I can guess your powers then you will become part of my team, and that if I can't then you get to live your life like a normal person. I am not going back on that promise. Now that said, I believe I have a pretty good idea of what it is you can do." He gave a smile that was meant to be confident, but only worked to convince her that he was wrong yet again. "You have magic, don't you? That's how you made the wall, and the coffin, and I'm willing to bet all the metal and healed the robbers hand the night you were at the robbery."

Ana didn't respond for a moment, merely glanced around as thoughts whirled through her head. He wasn't wrong, in fact he was extremely close. It was just the wrong word. Magic meant spells and incantations and rituals, like Zatanna and Doctor Fate. What she could do didn't rely on words, but rather bringing together the actual components of what it was she was making. She didn't summon anything, she turned nothing into something, created that which did not exist before with a blink of an eye.

She could tell him he was wrong. Tell him that it wasn't exactly magic, but what would that get her? She could barely protect herself from these people that refused to give her a choice. Even if he left her alone they wouldn't. She needed to learn how to properly use her powers, to defend herself and others without the resulting headache that was beginning to bloom. She couldn't live her life afraid of what she was and yet unwilling to change. She needed to make a choice.

"Technically its creation," the whisper was nearly silent but Nightwing heard it all the same. "As long as I know how to make something I can. It's pretty limited though so I generally stick with simple elements, like iron. I can't make anything complex, like say a computer, but I can make skin and wood. Natural materials are easiest." She demonstrated by bringing up her hand, still torn up and bloodied from her collision with the pavement, and began creating new skin where the old had been ripped away.

Nightwing's eyes widened behind the mask as he watched layer upon layer of skin appear, turning a healing process that would usually take days or a week or two occur in only a matter of seconds. _Creation._ That was why her power seemed so all over the place and hard to miss. That was why she had made the deal. The events of the last several minutes must have shaken her up enough to have made her decide it was better to make the decision herself than to wait for it to be decided for her.

As she brought her fully healed hand down he asked her a question, one that would decide her fate. "Do you want to join us? We will train you how to use your powers, how to fight, and you will go on missions. So do you want to do this?"

A choice. He was giving her an actual choice. If tonight's events had taught her anything it was that she needed what he was offering if she wanted to survive.

"Yes."

* * *

GOTHAM CITY

12PM OCTOBER 22

Ana sat on her bed and stared at the box that lay at her feet. It had arrived yesterday but she hadn't had the nerve to open it until now. Despite not having a return address she knew exactly who the gift was from. It was curiosity that had finally driven her to opening the package, but now that she did she regretted it. It had only been two nights ago that she had decided what she was to do about her little dilemma and already Nightwing was taking her under his wing.

Inside the box was a simple gift, though it symbolized so much more than she was willing to admit right now. It was a simple domino mask similar to his own, made with a sort of gum to attach to the skin to avoid the need for a strap. Beneath the mask was a note with an address and a time. A meeting place for them to train a bit before she was officially brought into the team. As he had escorted her home that night he had remarked that she would need to work on her skills before she was even ready to meet the others. He hadn't said when they would begin training, but according to the note it would be immediately. She groaned at the thought.

* * *

BLUDHAVEN

12PM OCTOBER 25

"So what exactly are this girl's powers?" Tim asked from his position on the couch, his head hanging upside down off the arm so as to better see his older brother.

Dick was leaning against his table, flipping through pages of Anastasia's file. "Creation, but she seems fairly limited. Apparently she needs to know exactly what goes into whatever she's creating so she can build it from the ground up." He frowned at a page and pulled it out of the stack. "There seems to be a time limit too. That coffin that she made disappeared after an hour, after it had already been transported to Arkham." That had been an unwelcome surprise when the iron had begun to just disappear into thin air and a very angry meta stepped out. They had been lucky enough that the coffin had already been placed in a cell, Ana having managed to explain that she wasn't sure how long it would last before she became too light headed for her words to make sense. The meta had been sedated after that so that they could take his mask off and put him in the system as well as place a neutralizing collar on him, similar to the ones used in Belle Rev.

"Why take him to Arkham?" Tim questioned, glancing at the second file that lay on the table.

Dick just shook his head. "It's just until what the League decides to do with him. For now all we know is that he has a history of mental instability and a power over lightning. I've handed his case over to Batman."

Tim rolled his eyes and jumped off the couch, making his way over to the table and snatching up the meta's file before Dick could stop him. He knew that Dick wouldn't keep his hands off the case, not when it affected his own new trainee. Leafing through the pages, he read aloud, "Jared Davidson, Gotham University student, mechanical engineering major. Born February 8, 1994. Aggression issues requiring counseling since age twelve, lost his parents in an electrical fire when he was sixteen. Electrokenesis meta powers. And apparently wants to be the next Hitler." He set the file down and crossed his arms. "So if you're handing his case over then why the file?"

Dick frowned at Tim. "If there's a group that wants to get rid of or at least oppress any non-metas then I need to know. They're targeting people with unique powers and if they've already struck once then who's to say they won't do it again?" He didn't have to say all of his concerns for Tim to understand. Dick couldn't face another Wally, let alone another Jason. He had already begun to invest in this girl, he couldn't let her be hurt or turned into a villain.

"I'll tell the team to keep an eye out for them." Tim promised. Dick nodded in thanks as his brother continued. "So when should we expect to see her show up?"

Knowing who Tim was referring to, Dick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She'll die on the first mission if she isn't trained first. If I can at least get her to the point she won't be a liability then she will join. I'll have you meet her soon though."

"When does that start?"

"Tonight."

Tim let out a snort. "Not even giving her time to mentally prepare, huh?"

Dick shook his head. "If she's being targeted she doesn't have time to wait. With any luck she'll be ready at least physically by the end of the year."

"You know that everyone is going to expect you to come back too then." Dick rolled his eyes at the remark. First Artemis and now Tim. Everyone seemed to expect him to return with this girl. He had little doubt that that was in fact the truth.

"You can meet her tonight. I'll send you the location when it's time." He stated, blatantly ignoring Tim's comment.

His younger brother nodded and walked over to the door in preparation to leave. "Then I will see you then." With that he let himself out, the door clicking shut behind him.

Now alone in his apartment, Dick ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. _What have I gotten myself into?_ This was supposed to have been simple: identify the meta and recruit her onto the team. Now he was finding himself right back into the same kind of situation he used to back when he was on the team. Though he supposed once Ana was trained enough to be introduced he'd be back in as well. Maybe he would suggest to Batman that the team should begin investigating the underground meta organization before then…

He shook his head and placed Ana's file down. He would pass it on to Batman later. For now he needed to figure out how he was going to begin training the girl. He wasn't sure what physical abilities she had, and he needed to know that before they began. She was average sized, though he wasn't sure how much of her was muscled. He'd test the waters tonight. In the meantime there was some much ignored homework to attend to.

* * *

GOTHAM

10:25 PM OCTOBER 25

She was late. Nightwing paced up and down the floor impatiently as minutes ticked by. Had she decided not to come? Had she been attacked again? He doubted that particular group of metas would attack again after three of their members had been taken into custody, particularly since they would likely expect her to be on guard. He checked the time. A minute since the last time he had looked. What was taking her so long?

The door to the gym creaked open and Nightwing spun, hands flying to his weapons only to relax when he saw the familiar form of Anastasia slip inside. As requested she was wearing the mask he had sent her. It sent a ping of satisfaction through him. She had decided to come, to at least try out what he was offering her. He glanced over the rest of her as she timidly approached. Black yoga pants, a loose purple t-shirt, and black and white running shoes. Not exactly hero-in-training esque, but he supposed he shouldn't have expected anything else. At least she had prepared for physical exercise instead of expecting to focus on her powers.

"Why here?" Was the first thing she said as she came to stand in front of him. Her voice was soft and timid, the same one she used around Dick.

"No security cameras anywhere nearby and I figured you were familiar with the area." He shrugged. Indeed, Ana was very well versed with this part of Gotham: the gym belonged to her former high school that had been closed down after a new location had been built to accommodate the rising population. Now it stood empty and abandoned, the only signs of use being graffiti covering the walls.

Ana didn't respond for a moment. The last time she had been in this gym was the year her mom had died. It was in here that she had spent much of her time hiding from classes and responsibilities and just mourn. It had once been a comfort, that space behind the bleachers that she could just barely see from where she stood, her safety zone where not even her brother could find her. _I guess it's only fitting that I'm here when I lose my normal life. Must be the theme of this place._ She thought bitterly.

Nightwing was watching her expressions carefully. Ana seemed almost…sad as she surveyed the run down gym. He wondered vaguely what might have caused the reaction as she recomposed herself and schooled her expression. He would ask her later, once he had earned her trust enough for her to tell him. Maybe he'd have Artemis pry a bit later…

"Before you officially join the team you need to be able to hold your own in a fight. Without powers." He emphasized the last bit and Ana inwardly groaned. She wasn't the most out of shape person, but she certainly wasn't the most in shape either. Ana had never been one to particularly enjoy exercising, only doing it because she was just vain enough to have a personal need to keep her body toned. Her version of exercise was running a couple miles three days out of the week when she could manage it and a near religious yoga practice in her living room. Flexible she was, but a fighter she was not.

* * *

A/N: I have returned from the dead! Sorry that this is so late, up until recently I was working two jobs this summer and thankfully I am back down to my one with a normal schedule with the semester about to start. Thank you to those of you who read and are enjoying this, the positive comments are what inspired me to keep writing this. To those who are wanting to see the rest of the team, I promise they are coming! Hopefully I can get a few more chapters out before school starts.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Training

GOTHAM

12 AM OCTOBER 26

Nightwing's version of training was hell. That was the conclusion Ana had come to after an hour and a half of being told to do everything from run to lift weights to dodge all of his attacks (a feat she certainly did not succeed in by any stretch of the imagination). By midnight she was sore and bruised and more than a little out of breath. A part of her regretted coming here tonight, though she knew she needed to learn at the very least self-defense. She wasn't sure what would happen if she was attacked again and Nightwing wasn't around to save her.

At least for now she had been given a break thanks to the arrival of another masked hero, this one almost as well known as Nightwing himself. Red Robin, another of Batman's protégé, had slipped into the gym about fifteen minutes prior and had spent the time watching from the bleachers as Nightwing attempted to mock pummel her into the ground. It was only after the older hero had ceased his attacks that Red Robin had made his presence known, though Nightwing had hardly seemed surprised.

"Anastasia, this is Red Robin, leader of the Team. He will be assisting with your training occasionally, as will other members." Nightwing introduced after the red clad boy had jumped down from his perch.

The younger boy gave a half smile and extended a hand towards her. Ana hastily wiped the sweat off her palm before shaking his hand rather awkwardly.

"Heard you've got a bit of bad luck. Most people can at least go a month between being attacked." He grinned but Ana wasn't quite sure how to react. She glanced at Nightwing for any advice but he just shrugged and crossed his arms almost as if in agreement with the younger hero. Red Robin let go of her hand and took a step back, cheerful expression leaving his face to be replaced with calculated curiosity. "Nightwing has informed me that you have some sort of creation power. Not too developed at this point, but with potential. How much have you used it?"

"Oh…um…I try to only use it when I need to." Her voice was quiet. Both males noticed the red flush that tinted her ears as she attempted to find an adequate answer. "I usually only do simple things – iron, skin, glass, water. But it never stays too long. I don't like using it." The last bit she muttered mostly to herself.

Unwittingly a vision of a flower coming from her sketchbook popped into her head. The damned thing had sold her out and she still had no idea how it had gotten there. Aside from that damned plant everything else was simple, things she understood with ease. Even the little portal the night of the robbery was simple to her after her mother had explained it. A pocket dimension was easy enough to make once the physics were explained to her. But that damned living flower…that was nowhere in her repertoire.

She forced the memory out of her mind. Now was no time to dwell on an anomaly. "I can make small portals too. To pocket dimensions." She stated, enjoying the astonished looks that came over the heroes' faces.

"I thought you said you could only make things if you knew what they were made of." Nightwing accused, the first of the pair to regain his composure.

Ana took a modicum of satisfaction in that moment. For all her powers were a burden she enjoyed being capable of shocking a pair of heroes who had seen more weirdness and unexplainable phenomena in their lives than she could even imagine. All because she knew how pocket dimensions and portals worked.

"Portals are easy: it's the same as your zeta tubes. Except that instead of technology I make a concentrated energy wave with a destination in place, being a pocket dimension in this case. The pocket itself is fairly simple as you just have to cause a bubble in space. Make that the destination and anything you send through the portal goes in there." She explained, simplifying the idea so as to not waste her breath attempting to explain it. The math behind it was much easier to write than to say. Instead, she chose the easier route.

Turning away from the boys she held out a hand, fingers spread wide. In her mind she could see all the elements she needed, lining them up one at a time, forming a circle. Energy crackled in the air in front of her hand, illuminating her in a pale blue light. Opening her eyes she saw the portal glowing, waiting to be put to use. Her other hand twitched, fingers expanding much like the space within the portal, causing it to expand, though it was not visible to the eye. Pulling her hand down she bent to untie her shoe. A simple demonstration didn't need something too large or important.

Pulling off the shoe she rose back up, glancing at the heroes briefly before her next move. Both had carefully schooled their expressions to be stoic despite the display at hand. With a roll of her eyes she tossed the shoe into the portal, closing it behind it.

Red Robin and Nightwing waited with bated breath for the shoe to fall down, but nothing came. Not until Ana reached her hand out again and brought the portal back, this time facing the floor. Out fell the shoe along with a gun that had not been there before.

It was Ana's turn to be surprised as she shut the second portal. She had forgotten that she had never emptied the pocket after the robbery – until now she had nearly forgotten that she had even used it. Gingerly she picked up her shoe, careful not to touch the offending weapon. Instead she found a black glove wrap around the barrel and lift it.

"Where did this come from?" She wasn't sure if it was anger or just badly masked confusion that laced Red Robin's voice as he studied the gun in his hands.

"About two weeks ago there was an attempted robbery at the coffee shop I was in. I sent the gun into the pocket." Ana explained carefully. "I haven't used the pocket since then."

"So it's always the same pocket dimension no matter where you are?" Nightwing asked before Red could say anything, his focus less on the gun and more on the implications its current presence had with Ana's abilities.

She nodded slightly. "If I don't use the same one I'll lose everything inside of it. Pocket dimensions don't have to necessarily be in the same geographical location to be the same one." Nightwing looked contemplative at her words, as if she had given him an idea.

In a way she had, though he was nowhere near proposing or testing it. This was something that was going to have to be built up. He scrutinized her carefully. There was more to her powers than she knew. He just needed to figure out how to make her realize it. Right now though, with her shaking limbs and sweat soaked clothes, she was clearly in no shape to do anything more for the night.

"Go home for tonight. Tomorrow you'll meet Red Robin here at ten to train again." Nightwing instructed, turning on his heel.

….

BATCAVE

11:26PM NOVEMBER 12

"I need someone to train her." Nightwing declared as he approached his mentor's back.

Batman didn't move from his seat in front of the monitors, scanning each one carefully. On the smallest screen at the bottom Anastasia's file was pulled up, now with physical abilities and meta abilities added.

"She's your responsibility: you find someone to train her." Was the only response he got from the Bat. Nightwing frowned. He and Red Robin had been training her for the last two weeks with a surprising amount of progress, but that had not helped her meta powers. Ana was still fairly weak in regards to using her creation abilities. Last week he had assigned for her to create a simple staff to use in training – she had made it out of pure iron and disappeared within the hour. She refused to make anything she did not know for sure she knew what it was made of, insisting that she was limited by her own personal knowledge. He needed someone, anyone, to train her.

"I can't train her if I don't know how her powers work." Nightwing all but growled out.

Batman stood, heading to the Batmobile. "Then find someone with similar powers."

….

WATCHTOWER

3:25PM NOVEMBER 14

"Let me get this straight. You want me to train this girl with creation powers to use her powers because I'm the closest person to having her powers?" Garfield's eyes were as high as they could go, his eyes wide as he stared at Nightwing. The older hero's mouth twitched slightly as the green boy summarized what he had spent the last half hour trying to explain. "Why not ask Zatanna?"

"Because what she does is spells. This girl, Genesis, she just makes what she thinks, but she can only do it if she knows all the details. That's why I need you." Nightwing elaborated with as much patience as possible. He had decided it better to create a name for Ana even before he began to enlist others' help in training her for her own sake. He had suggested the notion the night before during training.

" _A name?" Ana had asked with that little head tilt she always did when she was confused. Always to the left._

 _Nightwing nodded, his arms crossed as he stood above where she sat on the gymnasium floor. They had been sparring for nearly an hour prior and the poor girl was still shaking like a leaf despite having had a break for five minutes now._ She really needs to work on her stamina. _Nightwing mentally criticized. She was still further along than he had even hoped after just a couple weeks of physical training, but nowhere near ready to join the team._

" _I'm going to see if one of the members of the team can help you get better control of you powers. But before that you need to pick out an alias that you want to go by. Something unconnected with your civilian self. You won't know anyone's civilian names on the team unless they tell you, so you need to come up with something too." He explained to her. In truth he had been contemplating on a hero name for her for a few days now, but nothing he had thought of seemed to match her or her powers._

 _Ana sat in thought for a moment, tapping her finger on her chin. "What about Genesis? It means 'origin'. It's pretty close to creation."_

 _Nightwing allowed a brief smile to cross his face. "Well then, Genesis, it's time to get back to work."_

….

 _ **I know this is a super short chapter, but I've been so ridiculously busy these past few months that I'm honestly amazed I even got this much done. Y'all. College is time consuming. So I very much apologize for not updating in months, please understand that I've been super swamped with class work, work, and other projects. I'm trying to get back into this story, though I also just started writing another Merlin fanfic as well that I'm going to attempt to work on simultaneously with this one. At least we're starting to see more of the actual team now!**_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Personal

GOTHAM UNIVERSITY

12PM NOVEMBER 16

Ana tried her best to focus on the piece in front of her but nothing seemed to make sense in her mind. The colors seemed to all meld into one piece on the canvas, an incomprehensible blob that she was ashamed to look at. She glanced at the other students' work on either side of her. To her left a girl had turned the model in the center of the room into an elegant and ethereal mermaid, her colors, though dull now, picked out intentionally to make it seem like water was rippling over her skin. To Ana's right a boy had turned the model into a Valkyrie, a battle goddess among corpses. Compared to Ana's flesh colored blob both were enchanting. _Why would they even have us do fantasy paintings?_ She thought grumpily, dipping her brush into a light brown paint to try to define any of what she had done.

 _I almost wish I was sparring. At least then everything I do makes sense._ The wry thought came unwanted into her mind, causing Ana to pause mid stroke. She had only been training for three weeks but she had come to enjoy it, not that she would ever tell her mentor that. She was still reeling in the satisfaction and joy of getting her own name. Genesis. The sound of it still rang in her ears. Not that it was helping at all with her current predicament. She had found that the training came much easier than anything else she had done, the body movements coming naturally and each of them having a clear definitive purpose behind them. She didn't have to wonder why she moved her arm; she just needed to know when.

It was almost a relief when class dismissed and she was finally able to pack up her painting supplies. She frowned at the canvas on the easel, still unsatisfied with it. Nothing about it felt right. _If only I could just_ create _my painting._ She giggled at the thought before realizing that it was a possibility. _I could use natural pigments for the paints. Say that I made them myself – I mean I kinda will have._ The idea was tempting. Too tempting to not experiment with. She had several hours before her next class, more than enough time to see if she could create a painting long enough to get through a critique. With renewed vigor Ana gathered her things and practically ran out of the classroom and building, a reckless smile plastered on her face.

Weaving through the foot traffic of campus she made her way to the university coffee shop. She still hadn't been back to Venus Coffee Shop since the night of the robbery just over a month ago but that didn't mean she was not over her inexplicable need for coffee. Instead of going there (despite Claire's and Isaac's protests and claims that the coffee house was as safe as it was before the incident) Ana had been getting her fix at the university. Internally she used the excuse that it was more convenient between classes and that after all Nightwing had been putting her through she needed a large dose of caffeine halfway through the day most days. Not that she could tell her friends that of course.

She ducked inside the building as a couple left, thanking them as the man held the door open for her. She was hit welcomingly with the smell of coffee and took a couple appreciative breaths before making her way to the surprisingly short line. She glanced around as she waited for her turn to order. As she neared the front of the line her eyes fell on a pair of students sitting at a window table, causing her to nearly trip. She apologized to the girl in front of her as she righted herself, staring incredulously at the pair who had clearly not yet noticed her. There, right beside the long window, sat Artemis and Dick, looking for all the world like a magazine couple. Ana forced herself to tear her eyes away long enough to place her order.

"What can I get you?" The barista asked, his voice falsely chipper.

"Oh. Um. J-just an iced latte please." She stuttered out. The barista looked at her oddly, but Ana chalked it up to the request of a cold drink in the middle of November.

"Name?"

Ana frowned, glancing quickly around and the small number of people still waiting for their orders. She hadn't thought she had had to give her name before…

"Ana," she said quietly. The barista nodded and put her name on the cup, taking far too long for just three letters. _He probably spelt it some weird way like they do at Starbucks. Seriously, how hard is it to spell Ana? Anna? Annah? Anya?_ She shook her head of the snarky comments hand handed him her card to pay. Five seconds and she was out of the way to find a place to sit.

"Ana!" She heard her name called by a familiar raspy voice and suddenly felt the urge to run far far away. But it was too late for that. She turned to face a smiling Artemis.

"Oh, I uh, I didn't see you there." _Relax. Nothing bad is going to happen. She probably just wants to be polite._ "Mind if I sit with you?"

Artemis waved a hand at the empty spot beside her. "Go ahead. Oh, this is Dick." She gestured over to the young man who chuckled at her introduction.

"We've met before. We actually have a class together later today." He informed his friend.

"Anatomy." Ana offered up lamely. She was suddenly feeling as if she had stepped into a bizarre world where everyone she met was somehow connected. She felt her leg begin to tap erratically against the floor and the back of her neck heat up. "So, um, are you two…?" She gestured between the pair who looked at her oddly for a moment before laughing.

"No, no. We've just been friends since high school." Dick explained with a smile.

Ana's face began to flush uncomfortably. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to, um." She lost her sentence, but luckily Artemis picked up what she was saying.

"Don't worry about it." She offered a comforting smile to the embarrassed girl. "So what's with the canvas?"

Ana glanced down at the large canvas she had leaned against the wall and grimaced. "Painting class. My professor wants us to turn a model into some fantasy scene, but it's not exactly going well so far. I'll probably have to start over." Her stomach fluttered at the prospect of just how she planned to redo the piece.

"You should show it to me when you finish it." Dick remarked, that half smile of his causing Ana to be utterly unable to think of a response. Luckily it was just then that her name was called for her drink. Ana excused herself to pick it up.

As she grabbed the drink and thanked the barista she noticed numbers on the cup. A phone number. She looked up at the barista counter in confusion. The man at the register winked at her, glancing down at her cup and then up to her face expectantly. Her ears flashed red and she quickly turned, unsure if she was more uncomfortable with the barista or her current drinking companions. She decided the latter was probably the better of the two. Stiffly she walked back over to the table.

Artemis tilted her head curiously as Ana rejoined them, noticing the near grimace on the red head's face. "Don't like the coffee?"

Ana shook her head and turned her cup to face Artemis. "More like don't like the offer."

The older girl smirked as she read the numbers scrawled on the cup beneath Ana's name. "Can't blame him for trying. At least he didn't ask for yours when you ordered. Right, Dick?"

Dick nodded and took a sip of his own drink. "Didn't really give you a chance to reject him, huh?" Ana rolled her eyes at him and took a drink.

 _As if he knew much about rejection anyway._ Ana thought snidely before reminding herself that he had only ever been kind to her on the few occasions she had interacted with him. Still, she could not imagine someone like him – handsome, rich, smart, and kind – had much experience with being turned down. She was well aware that he was often the tabloids' second favorite bachelor to gossip about in Gotham, the first being Bruce Wayne himself. _He's probably the one to do the rejecting._

"So Ana, any chance you're free this weekend?" Artemis drew her out of her thoughts with the unexpected question. Ana's brows drew together in confusion.

"N-not really." She stuttered. "My friends wanted to throw me a birthday party before they all leave for Thanksgiving."

Dick raised an eyebrow at this. "When is your birthday?"

Ana fiddled with the straw in her drink as she answered, "Tuesday. November twenty-first."

"Celebrating your twenty-first on the twenty-first?" Dick gave an amused smile even as Ana shook her head.

"Not til next year. I still need to turn twenty first." She paused, internally grimacing at the word choice. _How many times can you even say twenty first in one conversation and mean different things?_

"That's too bad. We're getting ready for Dick's twenty-first in a couple weeks. Maybe you should join for the house party." Artemis commented. Dick sent her a pointed look even as Ana squirmed in her seat.

"That's not r-really necessary. I'm not much of a p-party person anyway." She stammered. Ana had no idea why Artemis seemed so enthusiastic about inviting her, or even why she was here having this conversation. In the last two years she had been able to avoid most people's attention, sticking to the same three people she grew up with. Now all of a sudden there were people right and left interested in her. Ana found it a rather odd feeling and not one she entirely enjoyed.

Mercifully she felt the buzz of her phone in her pocket. Trying to be as discrete as possible she checked the text, sighing in relief as she was given a way out.

Standing and grabbing her drink, Ana excused herself. "I have to go, I forgot I had plans with friends today. It was nice seeing you guys." She grabbed her backpack and practically bolted out of the coffee shop as Artemis and Dick bid her goodbye.

"She's a completely different person than usual." Dick chuckled. "It's probably a good thing. Once she joins the team she'll need to keep that life and this one separate." _At least for now. Who knows how deep she'll get herself? For all I know she could end up letting it consume her. She'd no longer be Ana – just Genesis. Just like Damian._

Artemis leaned back in her seat, swishing the coffee around in her cup. "She'll grow out of it. Maybe not around you, but with the rest of us at least. She knows how to act around _you_ when you normally see her, but not around this you. Talk to her more and she'll relax." She glanced at the wall beside where Ana had been sitting. "You can start with bringing her painting to her." She gestured to the forgotten canvas.

* * *

"Claire you are a lifesaver." Ana panted as she got to her friend's apartment. She had run from the coffee shop to the complex, using the chance to get in a little bit of exercise before tonight's training regimen.

The shorter girl raised an eyebrow at the sweating Ana, taking in her rather messy hair and heavy breathing. "Got a new boyfriend I don't know about or did you run all the way here?" She smirked.

Ana rolled her eyes and followed Claire inside. "Ran. God knows I'm not exactly the type people date." At Claire's incredulous look she clarified, "Who wants to date a girl that is paranoid and awkward?"

Claire just sighed and plopped down on her couch. "You're too self-deprecating. I happen to know someone who would love to date you; you're honestly not nearly as bad as you say you are." She pointed to an open door on one side of the mini hall. "Go clean up, you look like you just banged someone." She chuckled as Ana flushed and went to go obey her, dropping her backpack on one of the mismatched chairs around the room as she did so.

Ana stared at herself in the mirror with a frown. Her hair was all around her face in frizzy curls, no definition to be seen and sticking up in random places. She was red with embarrassment and exertion, her face almost matching her hair in color. Claire was right: she did look like she had just had sex. _Damned wind._ With a little sigh she picked up Claire's brush and began to attempt to untangle to unruly mess.

In the end she had decided on braiding her hair, having turned the tangled mass into an even larger fluffy mass. Checking the door she decided to try something. Holding out her hand she calmed her mind. _Silk is simple. It's non-synthetic and made by silk worms._ She focused on making the fabric, turning it into a thin strip about eight inches long. _Weave the fibers together, nice and tight so that nothing unravels._ She opened her eyes, feeling the cool fabric in her hand. With a smile she tied the ribbon around the end of her braid, the white a stark contrast against her dark red. The smile faded slightly as a thought occurred. _What if it disappears before I leave here? She would know right away that something is wrong._

Deciding the risk was too much she slipped the ribbon off and stuck it in her pocket with a twinge of regret. She rummaged around for a moment in the drawers below the sink until she found a simple hair tie to use instead.

Ana left the bathroom, shutting the lights behind her and making her way over to the couch where Claire was sitting.

"So what exactly did I save you from?" Claire asked lightly as Ana took her seat nestled in the corner of the couch with her knees up under her chin. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "When you came in," Claire elaborated, "you said I was a life saver. What did I save you from?"

"Oh. That." Ana pursed her lips disdainfully. She had not told her friends about her new acquaintance with Bruce Wayne's son, nor meeting Artemis a few weeks ago and why encountering both at the same time was more embarrassing to her than it should have been. "I ran into a couple of people from one of my classes at the coffee shop on campus. They insisted I sit with them, but it ended up being really weird." She explained lamely.

Claire nodded as if that explained everything, "Anyone I might know?"

Ana groaned inwardly. Of course she would press for names. For as quiet as Claire was around most people she loved to know everything, particularly if she found the subject in any way interesting. Ana glanced up at her friend's probing look and relented. _What's the worst that could happen?_ "The girl's name is Artemis. The guy…his name is Richard." Not a lie but not something that was going to immediately cause a long line of questioning. Ana knew for a fact that Claire stopped at most tabloids that had Dick Grayson's face on them no matter how small the article. She had often begged her father to bring her to one of Bruce Wayne's charity fundraisers for the chance to meet his ward – though no matter how many she seemed to go to she never did meet Dick. Ana did not have the energy to be probed for answers she did not have.

Thankfully Claire did not seem to pick up on her hesitance to give her a name. "Artemis as in the Greek goddess?" She raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Yeah, I met her about a month ago but she wanted me to sit with them." Ana shrugged casually. "She even tried to invite me to her friend's birthday party in a couple weeks."

"Oh, that reminds me! We need to figure out what to do about your birthday," Claire exclaimed, mercifully latching onto the new topic.

Ana smiled and let her steer the conversation, her mind wandering to how she could manage to get out of having a party this year. In truth she wasn't too keen on spending an evening doing the same thing she did every year, upsetting her downstairs neighbors with music and shouting well into the night. No, all she wanted to do was what she had been doing for the last three weeks. She wanted to – needed to – train until she could hold her own in a fight. She needed to be ready for anything, no matter how quiet the last few weeks had been. She was not at all convinced that the metas hunting her had simply given up. Nightwing had assured her that the man who assaulted her and two of his accomplices had been arrested that same night and were currently sitting behind bars, but that didn't mean there weren't more. She had not forgotten the fourth person who shackled her to the ground. They had never found them. And the man with the lightning had seemed to be speaking about more people than just those present. _'we're here to save you. To invite you to join us – other metas like you who were made against our will.'_

Claire tapped her on the shoulder, startling Ana out of her thoughts. "Were you listening to anything I said?"

Ana shook her head apologetically. "Sorry, I spaced out there for a minute."

Her friend looked at her pitifully, though Ana hadn't the slightest idea why. "You've been having the episodes again, haven't you? That's why you haven't been hanging out with us as often or coming to Venus as often as you usually do, isn't it?"

Ana could have hugged Claire right then. It was all the cover she needed to get out of any birthday celebrations or whatnot and go to train. "Yeah. The nightmares have been coming back lately. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep." A little lie, but a believable one that would excuse her inattentiveness.

Claire gave another sympathetic smile and patted her hand. "I wish there was something I could do to help. It's been a year and a half and you're still having episodes. You know you can talk to me if you need to. It might help to share what happened." She spoke quietly in an attempt to comfort, but her words only brought back those painful memories.

Ana didn't want to think about what had happened a year and a half ago, but the mention of the time brought back images like flashes of lightning. She could see the dock as bright as day, waiting for a ferry that wouldn't come. She wasn't even supposed to be in the crowd, an accidental grab by the Reach when they had been trying to snatch up runaways – people who were already missing according to their loved ones. She hadn't been running away, only trying to visit her aunt who was waiting for her on the other side of the Hudson River. She had been corralled into a cage, put into a pod and brought in and out of conscious against her will, poked and prodded and injected with serums she didn't know the names of, electrified in their experiments, studied like a lab rat.

All at once she felt like she was suffocating, back in the pod they had kept her in for over a month. She stood abruptly and walked over to where her bag sat on a pale yellow and gray chair. "I've gotta go. Sorry, I'll text you later after class." She said over Claire's confused attempts to decipher what was wrong. Ana needed out – out of the room, out of the building, out of everything.

She ran down the stairs, taking two at a time. A part of her wondered if she _could_ ever talk about what had happened.

* * *

She wasn't entirely sure where she was going as she ran, her feet taking her further and further from her apartment complex as she struggled to calm down. She couldn't let herself be pulled into that place any time someone mentioned what had happened. She was supposed to be training to be a hero; she shouldn't be running away from her problems like a frightened little girl. The past was far behind her, in a different year and place that could never be returned to. She had different problems to deal with, ones with flesh and blood that she had to fight. The past was already solved, there was nothing she could do to change it.

It wasn't long until Ana found herself among familiar brick buildings towering above her. She knew it was nowhere near time for her class but even so she felt the itch to go up to that classroom where the most anyone knew about her was her name, where every question had an answer, everything logically laid out and measurable. Maybe she would be lucky and no one would bother her. Then she could go home and deal with the thoughts that plagued her in peace.

Luck was not on her side though as she attempted to find a quiet corner to pass the time in. As she entered the library a familiar voice called her over. With a groan she turned toward Isaac, his grin quite the opposite of what she felt right then.

"Ana, long time no see. I was starting to think you had become a ghost." His deep voice was much more cheerful than what Ana wanted to hear. She wished deeply that she had not come into the library, or at least that she had pretended not to hear him. Instead she trudged over to him, not bothering to change her gloomy expression. "Claire said you ran out of her place pretty upset. Care to talk about it?"

"No, I do not." Ana snapped, a strange glee filling her at Isaac's flinch at her tone. She was not usually a very harsh person when it came to her friends, but she was not in the mood to have to deal with anyone at the moment.

Isaac shook off the shock however and grabbed her hand, gripping it even as she tried to pull away. "What the hell is wrong with you lately? First you act like you're hiding from the world, then you won't give me the time of day, and now you're scaring Claire and acting like you hate me. You're acting like an entirely different person, Stasia." It was Ana's turn to tense up. The last time he had called her that he had accused her of trying to run away like the other victims of the Reach, telling her that if she hadn't been at the ferry then she wouldn't have been taken.

Bile rose up in her throat as she tried to pull away again, ignoring the looks they were getting by other students eager for a scene to distract them from their studying. If it was a scene they wanted then that was what they were going to get Ana decided. With a strength that Isaac did not expect she wrenched her hand away from him and took a step back, far enough to be able to look up at his eyes. Summoning that confidence she had gained from weeks of training with heroes she near whispered in a deadly hiss, "Don't you _ever_ call me that again. There is nothing wrong with me that wasn't wrong before now." She could feel the temptation in her fingers to lash out, to create shackles to pull him to the ground, to trap him in iron like she did that meta. The thought both thrilled and scared her.

Isaac narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Something _had_ changed in Ana, something fundamental. Gone was the girl who was afraid of any repercussions, who couldn't talk back to a stranger, let alone a friend. He wasn't sure when this change had happened, but he wasn't sure he liked it. _Why couldn't she have stayed like Claire?_

A figure came up behind Ana, drawing Isaac's gaze to him. He knew this man. Dick Grayson, adoptive son of Bruce Wayne. The golden boy, probably here to come to the rescue. Ana turned her head to follow his gaze and froze. A cold feeling began to seep through Isaac. She knew him. Even before this sudden change in her she never just froze at the sight of a stranger. No, it was always someone she recognized, someone she didn't want to see.

Dick glanced between the two, the tension nearly visible. He wasn't sure if he should interrupt, but both Ana and the boy were watching him now, giving him no choice but to approach. He hadn't intended to run into Ana here, nor did it seem she had thought she'd see him. She was breathing hard, as if she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. Her hands were balled into tight fists, thumb on the outside across the second digits just like he taught her. There was steel in her eyes, the same as when she had encased Jared Davidson in an iron coffin. The only conclusion he could come to was that the boy in front of her had somehow provoked her – and he had no idea how dangerous she was.

Stepping up beside her, Dick kept his eyes on Ana's, silently pleading her not to do anything drastic. Casually he held up the large canvas he had been carrying, figuring it was the easiest way to break the stalemate between Ana and the boy. "You left this in the coffee shop. I was going to bring it to you before our class started, but I guess now works too." He practically thrust the canvas into her hands. She needed a distraction, badly.

"Thanks. Didn't even know I left it." She said tensely, her eyes flickering over to the boy glaring at them only two feet away before lighting back on him. "I was just leaving here anyway. Care to study with me? We've got that test tomorrow and I think I need some help with it."

Dick nodded and allowed her to lead him out of the library, canvas in hand and back ramrod straight. She didn't lose the glare for even a moment until they were nearly half way across campus. Once they passed the art building her shoulders relaxed and she slowed her pace. Dick slowed to match her, coming up beside her so as to better take a look. Her eyes were red and glassy, her nose and cheeks a matching splotchy red from the cold wind. If it weren't for the canvas she carried he had no doubt her hands would be trembling. She was back to being just Ana. He let out a small sigh of relief. The part of her that he had glimpsed just a few moments ago had concerned him. She had looked ready to kill, to lash out let the boy know just how dangerous she really was.

"Who was that guy?" He asked as lightly as possible, keeping an eye on her reactions. Ana's shoulders tensed for just a moment before she forced them to relax.

"An old friend who needs to learn that no means no even after a few years." She muttered darkly.

"Mind if I ask what he did?"

Ana barked a humorless laugh. "You'll have to get a lot closer to me if you want to know my secrets, Grayson." She glanced up at him, dropping the act as she made eye contact. "Thank you for showing up, even if you didn't mean to. I'm not sure what I would have done if you hadn't."

In truth Ana had been dangerously close to letting her power out if only to frighten Isaac. She hadn't truly had a conversation with him since the night she had been attacked by metas, and not by accident. Something about him unnerved her despite all the years they had known each other. It was odd, she decided, that she had begun to prefer the company of Nightwing and Red Robin over that of her actual friends. She may have had history with her friends, but she could be honest to the heroes teaching her. They knew who and what she was and weren't afraid of her for it.

Dick smiled gently and resisted the urge to put a hand on her shoulder. The way she was talking to him was the way she spoke to Nightwing; honest and straightforward without any stammering or shyness.

"I'm happy to help."

* * *

 _A/N: I'm so sorry for the late update. I was hoping to have it out at least by New Years but I kept getting stuck on the scene with Claire. This is version six or seven of that scene. I'm about to be super busy again with school but I promise I haven't given up on this! The next chapter is going to have more canon characters in it - even if Ana isn't close to being ready to join the team. I'm going to set up a poll for y'all to vote on which canon character you want to see more of, the winner will appear in the next couple chapters._


End file.
